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Don Lemon Tonight

Trump Jr. Agrees To Transcribed Interview With Senate Panel; Harvey Will Make 2nd Landfall In Just Hours; Harvey Dumps 51.88 Inches Of Rain Near Houston; Aired 11-Midnight ET

Aired August 29, 2017 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

[23:00:00] EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: So the question is are we going to be able to see the transcription when that is done? We know that some Senators had previously talked about releasing these transcripts and obviously there is a lot of questions that we all have about that meeting that have not yet been answered.

DON LEMON, CNN TONIGHT NEWS SHOW HOST: All right Evan Perez, thank you.

PEREZ: Thanks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

LEMON: Our breaking news. Tropical storm Harvey threatens a second land fall in a matter of hours in the region already inundated with life threatening floods. Curfew beginning in Houston in just two hours, two hours from now. This is CNN tonight, I am Don Lemon. Thank you for joining us. 10,000 people are in shelters tonight in Houston but the devastation of the storm far from over. Harvey could dump an additional 15 inches of rain on Louisiana and Texas bringing more catastrophic flooding before making landfall again in the next few hours. Somewhere along the Texas/Louisiana border. We've got it all covered for you tonight. We start of tonight with CNN Drew Griffin, he joins us now from one of those pretty much a border city and that is Beaumont, Texas. Drew, thank you so much for joining us. You're in southwest Texas. An area hit hard by this storm. The storm is hitting again. Give us the latest.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, Don, just to be clear, southeast Texas, about 60 miles east of Houston. This is Beauport, Jefferson County and this is where what is Harvey right now it's expected to come barreling through with more and more rain, 10 to 15 inches possibly just overnight tonight according to the emergency management officials right here and Texas just can't take it anymore. It's just becoming miserable. The rescues they're doing have just been limited to life threatening, because of the wind and thunderstorms, we've got lightning and heavy, heavy winds coming through in squalls and they're expecting, later tonight, these winds to get up to 30, 40, maybe gusts up to 50 miles per hour. That is not a lot when you think about 100 mile-per-hour wind in a hurricane. But after the ground has been so saturated, that can easily start bringing down trees, knocking down electricity, which would only add to the misery of the people here in southeastern Louisiana.

LEMON: So Drew, last time we saw you it was raining much more, now even during the live shot it's picking up. It comes and it goes, correct?

GRIFFIN: Yes. These are squalls, thunderstorm cells that there booming through as Harvey, and the tropical storm comes straight towards us off the coast. You can see the bands energy coming off of the gulf and streaming up this way and it just depends on where you are in that line and which side of the storm you are as to whether or not at that moment you are getting hit with a deluge or just light rain. But all day today it has never stopped raining in Jefferson County, Louisiana.

LEMON: I got to ask you you've been out and about. What are you seeing? How are people preparing?

GRIFFIN: It was about rescuing today. Volunteers. We saw the boats that you've been seeing in Houston. The same boats are here. People are just showing up from Louisiana, from three hours away in drier parts of Texas. They come with their boats. They go to the local fire station, the fire station gets a call and these bands of volunteers go out and rescue people and bring them to shelters. Mostly people here in Jefferson County, they are not sheltering in shelters per se, they are going to friends, they are going to relatives. People are basically trying to just hold on hoping that the rain will stop and hoping that rain will stop before their provision run out. There is no more getting ready for anything because you can't get around. The stores are closed. Roads are pretty much impassable. So you really just have to hunker down, hope for Harvey to finally make its way out, for some kind of sunshine to come through and see how fast these flood waters recede.

LEMON: All right Dre, thank you very much. We will check back again. I want to get you now to Sugarland, Texas and that is where we find CNN's Martin Savidge, he is live for us there. People are having to evacuate with their clothes on their backs and now having to brace for more flooding. What are you seeing?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, tonight we've seen the last of the boats came out of here just around sunset. They don't like to work after dark. There were a couple high profile trucks that did work through the darkness but it is quite behind us. As you point out, it might look like I'm standing at the edge of a lake with lights in a background. This is a subdivision. River stone is a huge community. There's hundreds of homes back here and many of them have water right up to their doors or inside of their homes and this was the area of intense evacuation over the past two days. People were told they were given a mandatory evacuation but by the time they received that order, the water had had already cut off their escape routes. You had hundreds of families trapped inside their homes. The first couple of hours it wasn't that bad, but through the night as they saw the water continuing to rise, today many of them hit the panic button. Ironically what they were using to contact the authority was not so much 911, a lot of them were using social media and there's a very intricate plan where they can reach out to strangers across the nation. They receive the call for help and relay it to the many volunteers as well as law enforcement here and literally boats are given an address and that is where they go. Tonight many people have left here. But as you say they're homeless with no real idea of when they are going to be back.

{23:06:00] LEMON: They don't know when. Thank you, Martin Savidge. I want to bring you now CNN Derek Van Dam, Derek is in Richmond, Texas. Hello to you. Harvey's rains have set a new record for tropical storms hitting United States of 51 inches. Unbelievable that more rain is coming. What's happening by you?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, fortunately, Don, there has been a brief glimmer of hope. I'm not wearing a raincoat because the skies have cleared up. I can see stars and the moon but that is often deceiving for these neighborhoods that there flooded like the one behind me. We're standing at the edge of the Brazos River in Richmond on the west side of Houston and this river behind me has risen 40 feet since Saturday morning. Astounding numbers here. It is set to break records. It's still got several feet to go. So the deceiving part about it, even though the weather has ultimately come to an end in west portions of Houston, the water levels will still rise at the rivers and the creeks and the bayous in some locations. So people need to be aware of that. This flood threat is not over even though the rain has ended. I want to take you to the reservoirs on the west side of Houston in an area known as attics and barker's reservoir. This is an area that has been over topping their banks. They've had controlled releases because ultimately too much water has filled into the reservoirs and it has flooded neighborhoods across this region. In fact there were over 100 subdivisions that have mandatory evacuations after some of the over topping of these reservoirs took place. There are over 3,000 homes that are currently impacted by flood waters and in fact, a family member of mine Don, cousin of mine actually had to be evacuated from that area, brought his family to safety and decided to join the search and rescue crews, going door to door, knocking on people's homes and bringing everyone to dry ground.

LEMON: Derek Van Dam, thank you very much, sir. I appreciate that. In the midst of this devastation of the storm, we're hearing incredible stories of courage and joining me on the phone is (inaudible), a mom who risked everything to save her baby daughter. How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm great, Don. How are you?

LEMON: I am doing well, thank do much for joining us. How is your daughter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is wonderful. He' she is a trooper.

LEMON: This is what I understand. You're at Texas children's hospital right now. And we are looking at photos, we are going to put this up. This is your beautiful daughter. That is harper now. She requires medical equipment and extra help. Is she okay? Getting everything she needs?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, she is. I'm so grateful and so blessed that we made it to Texas children's hospital at the location in Katy, Texas. We're receiving the best care from our team and extended family here.

LEMON: Tell us your story of survival and getting your child to the right place to get help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happen Don is, I didn't expect the storm quite what it evolved to be. It started as just buzz, buzzing that it was going to rain and heavier than normal. So we all braced ourselves for what we thought was going to be intense tropical storm. I do what any mom would do, I think, in my case, with extra special precaution. I ordered extra oxygen for my daughter and insure we would have electricity and a game plan, get extra supplies, and have the right contact information, vice versa so we could execute a solid plan. I did additional things, normal things. Peanut butter and jelly, snacks for what I thought would be a day or so of heavy rain. It turned out to not be that. Water was rising at rate faster than I could imagine.

[23:10:13] I found myself being flooded inside my home just myself and my daughter. The equipment was going to require electricity, so I had had to make fast decision. I found a number for a neighbor. He was a little late welcoming me to the neighborhood. I just received a cake the week before accompanied by a business card which I'm eternally grateful for. Because I had that number I was able to contact my neighbor and they said that they thought that I have left because prior to that, Friday night I had a friend over and we were calling what we had a storm party and watching movies, thinking everything was ok. By Saturday the sun was shining so she decided to go home with her son. I was as grateful as the water rose that my neighbor picked up the phone and immediately said to me I'm coming. I was panicked but I knew I had to remain strong for Harper. She needed me every step of the way.

LEMON: You ok?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. It's -- I'm just so grateful. We put all our oxygen tanks in the bins that he brought over. He was going to throw them away the week before but something in his gut told him to keep them. We put the oxygen tanks in the bins and put them outside to see if they would float. We weren't sure. I knew I had to get her across the street because our street was one story and their house was two and I just knew we could wait a little while, maybe wait it out. We did just that. I had to pick Harper up but didn't realize the water was four to five feet tall. I thought it was a foot or so but the decline in the driveway and the dips in. The roads, the water was flowing and I had had to pick her up even more. It was tough because I felt like I was going to drop her. Was wet and cold and I was carrying the oxygen tanks and her tubing. She tried to climb to the street. So I ended up sing "row, row, row, your boat." We made it across and so grateful. But it didn't stop just there. We ended up waiting and oxygen was decreasing. We had electricity but we knew it was going to fade soon and much to my god send I'm forever grateful that someone took it upon themselves to do a wellness check on us.

They asked if we were ok and we were able to express we only had so many hours possibly at most a day or so of oxygen and with the weather the way it was we didn't think we would be able to get her to safety. So they rallied a boat. That boat took us to a neighbor's house. They didn't know us from can of paint but their house was a higher elevation. So they welcomed us into their home with all the medical equipment that we had carried. My neighbor and I above our heads, through the water with one bag containing just a few items of clothing for myself and Harper and I had a feeling in my gut that might be the last time we see our home or our things but it did not matter because she was the most priceless thing to me.

LEMON: But you left with only the clothes on your back. Is that all you have?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had the clothes on my back and I put two to three outfits for each one of us inside zip lock bags. The most important thing was obviously Harper but main thing was her medical equipment, medical records and her identification just in case we need some help.

LEMON: What do you need?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, Don, we are completely and utterly displaced because Harper has chronic breathing and lung conditions among other things. We stand in need of housing, of permanent housing where she can be safe and healthy. Also a place that is solid for us where she can then receive her medical equipment so we can resume trying to put together the threads of our lives.

[23:15:03] What I'm hearing now from officials that hospital we had had a meeting. They do family center care which I really appreciate and the meeting we had, Don, we discussed options for us and unfortunately while FEMA has hotel options, the medical supply company that supplies Harper's oxygen and her machines to care for her outside of a hospital setting is currently surrounded by water. What's even more devastating, because it puts a longer timeline for how I can figure it out for us as a mom? So we're working closely and I'm call, even as Harper's sitting here in my arms with oxygen, we're trying to make sure we don't jump out too soon so we have to come back here. We want to make sure we find a -- be all, end all solution. That is our goal and first and foremost is her health, of course. We've lost everything, Don. We've lost furniture and clothing and memories and toys and they're just things but we had just gotten everything together in our home. Literally just moved in March and I was so excited about nursery and everything that was set up for her that she spent so much time in the hospital, this was our year of fun. We were excited for her second birthday, September 9th. Family was going to fly in. Now we have nowhere to host them, let alone ourselves.

LEMON: Listen I don't want to keep you. We needed to release some of this stuff and it's just -- there are no words. There are no words because I know people at home are wanting to help you and hoping the best for Harper and for you and your story is incredible and I pray that you guys will be ok. And if you need anything, make sure you call us. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. God bless you.

LEMON: God bless you.

You want to help, see the bottom of your screen right here. People need help. CNN.com/impact. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:22:17] LEMON: Almost hard to imagine, Harvey has almost dumped more than four feet of rain in areas in and around Houston. So let's check in with CNN meteorologist, Tom Sater now. Is it four feet of rain?

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLIGIST: Yes. In fact. It was at 51.88 inches. That is a record for the lower 48. The previous record back in 1978 was tropical storm Amelia which also hit Texas. The all-time record for the entire U.S. was 1950 Hurricane Ike dropped 52. Now that 51.88 that gauge broke. It doesn't matter. We're looking at land fall in about four to five hours and it looks like the will be in southwest Louisiana. The problem is Beaumont. The last 72 hours they picked up over 33 inches, they were hammered by 1 and a half a day. I don't know how Lake Charles missed out today but thank goodness they did. Fans to the north and south are flooded but Lake Charles okay right now. Beaumont is going to be inundated. They will be needing rescue and aids here, the storm system once it makes land fall continues to flood east Texas until Western Louisiana. We are looking at this to pick up in speed. This is good news because last week when we had had land fall on Friday, we had Thursday and Friday places still in Texas. So the models did change and pick it up. We had had localized flash flooding but nothing like we're seeing down here.

LEMON: How long have I known you for free years? I just called you Slater. I'm sorry. That last story with the mom just broke me up. How serious is the flooding situation around the Houston town?

SATER: That is maybe one of the greater fears everyone should pay attention to. This is Houston and we've heard so much about the buffalo bayou. West to east through the City. What you see here are two catch mitt basins. They are levies and we've had had 35 inches of rain come downstream into this area. Together, these two pretty much hold on to 132 billion gallons. When you get in closer, the (inaudible) the (inaudible) hold 65 billion by itself. A few day ago they decide we've got to release some of this water because even though the buffalo is over flowing, it is reseeding but we've got to save the community around this area. Here's the problem. Most of the year these are dry. It's full of dog parks and baseball field. It's fantastic.

[23:25:03] Now these are earthen levies. They are not concrete. They were built 70 years ago and they've never been tested like this before. It's never been this high. A 140 of the Apex a 108 to the north, the reason they let the water out, they were afraid it was going to come into all the communities. Now we've got a problem because the water is overlapping the area. So when you look at this area closer, this is the flood water that have entered all the communities. 3200 homes that have been flooded. They have evacuated over 100 subdivisions. It goes on and on. If this is compromised and the levies which are earthen, not concrete, that opens the door to billions of gallons of water making its way -- it's going to fan out across thousands of communities. That is a problem. Yes.

LEMON: Huge problem. Tom, thank you. We'll check back in with you. The gauge broke. I can't believe that happened. So we probably did set a record.

SATER: Most likely.

LEMON: Most likely. All right thank you I appreciate it.

I want to get now to Judge, an expert. He is with Rosaria County. And there's Jeff Lindner of Harris County flood control. So thank you both for joining us. I want to get to you first. A levy was breached in your community prompting this message that says "get out now!" Did people follow your orders?

MATT SEBESTA, TEXAS JUDGE, BRAZONA COUNTY: We actually put that message out door to door two days ago in that subdivision. National weather service has predicted for the last several days that the water from Brazos River was going to be high, but when we got that word this morning that levy was having issues, we did put that message out. The breach was -- started out as a minor breach and luckily we had had good citizens, we had some road bridge crews, local contractor volunteers got out there. They got it under control with some ply wood, building materials and a contractor -- our road bridge guys brought in sand bags. Brought in some clay, got it packed in. They got the levy fortified this morning.

LEMON: You think that is good enough to hold?

SEBESTA: We're praying that does. That was just -- that breach was just from rain water that has landed in Brazoria County and was running along a creek in the back of the subdivision. The Brazos River is just half a mile or so from that subdivision and it is on the rise. It will continue to rise over the next few days.

LEMON: Stand by. Jeff, how long do you expect the flooding in your community to last?

JEFF LINDNER, HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL: Well, right now it looks like the flooding in Harris County will last until the end of the week and some of the homes will be inundated up to four to six weeks as the pool dewaters.

LEMON: How much rainfall has your County seen in the past few days?

LINDNER: We have seen in the last four days one trillion gallons of water fall on Harris County. It's absolutely staggering the amount of rain that has fallen and the devastation it's caused.

LEMON: So Judge, back to you. We talked about the levy. Do you have the resources you think you need going forward? Because more rain is expected.

SEBESTA: More rain is expected but most of the rain is sliding to the east of us. We're expecting another inch or so of rain. The rain event for us is mostly done. The main thing that we have is we have two rivers in Brazoria County. We have the St, Bernard River and we have The Brazos River. They're both now water that has landed north of us is coming into the County, down those rivers. They're cresting at very high elevations. We had a flood last summer on the Brazos River, third highest on record. This has already surpassed it. This will be the new third highest on record and we will have flooding here for the next several weeks as there is a lot of water coming down the river from upstream.

LEMON: How many people, Jeff, do you think are stuck and waiting to be rescued?

LINDNER: Luckily it looks like the rescue operations have really gotten to most of those that have been needing rescued. But there are still some people, especially in the northern and eastern part of the County. And we have over 15,000 rescues and I can tell you right now, that not all of those have been documented. When we were here Saturday night to Sunday morning, we are receiving 911 calls of people screaming that they did not know what to do and the water is neck deep in their homes, we were telling them to get on their roofs and we were deploying so many assets that we ran out of everything in the stories of the law enforcement and first responders of jumping off of boats to grab people to save their life, there's things I've seen and heard in the last four days that I'll never forget.

DON LEMON, CNN TONIGHT NEWS SHOW HOST: Judge and Jeff Lindner, thank you. I really appreciate it. Good luck to you guys. We'll check back in with you.

LINDNER: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: When we come back neighbor saving neighbor. How volunteers are jumping in to rescue desperate people across the flood zone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We're back now with the breaking news, of course it is tropical storm now, storm Harvey, former hurricane. Officials in Texas saying between 9,000 and 10,000 people have been rescued in Houston and in surrounding region. Volunteers pitching in to help first responders get flood victims to safety. Joining me by phone is Reverend John Stevens a rescuer. I first spoke to last night. He is a senior pastor at Chapel Wood of United Methodist Church and he joins us again. Pastor thank you for joining us again. How many people did you think you rescued today.

[23:35:29] JOHN STEVENS, REVEREND CHAPELWOOD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Today, over 20 - 25, a lot. It is hard to keep count.

LEMON: Go ahead. You just can't get to so many of them, because I am sure people are wondering, it has been three days.

STEVENS: We're trying to coordinate as well as we can with resources that we have. Sometimes we hear about someone being stuck and someone gets over there before we get there and they've already been rescued or whatever. But we've had another church member that was there and their 91-year-old mother in law and neighbors were on the second floor. We got her out, some of the guys brought her down in the wheelchair. There's no way they could get out. One of the neighbors had a bad back and a lot of things we find as we go into the neighborhoods to get one particular family and then we run across all these people and there was a doctor who didn't want to leave but he and his care takers, we got them out and it surprises me. We continue to run across people who don't want to leave. So it's not like -- we're not finding people on the roof. I've seen some of that, although we've been busy today where the water is up into your waist. In the first floor, they're on the second floor and I had several people that we talked to today that didn't want to leave. An elderly couple didn't want to stay. And I'm not really sure why. Someone asked me earlier why would I stay? I don't know the answer to that question.

LEMON: People are reluctant to leave their homes when the storms come through and sadly people learn it's probably better to get out ahead of time but I'm sure they're worried about looting, they may not want to leave their things. There's a many of reasons people don't want to do it. I got to ask you. We're playing your video. I don't know if you can see air?

STEVENS: No.

LEMON: I see you're putting things he in a boat there, and plastic bags, there's a red cooler. I also saw you loading a woman into a boat. And what kind of stories are they telling me?

STEVENS: Yeah, so Miss Prisz, I think --

LEMON: Hang on a second. Are you narrating here?

STEVENS: Yes, I was talking to her here.

If we could just redact a little bit. Let's have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVENS: Yeah, sounds really country. So we're heading down now to get some members of the church and 91-year-old mother in law. Already made contact with them.

LEMON: You can hear the water slushing around and you're really trying to comfort people. You're just talking to them to try to get their attention so they don't focus on the danger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEVENS: There was one woman that came, one of the care takers that came out. She can't swim. And he didn't want to leave and as we were getting him out, she came over and said thank you so much for taking us out of here. She was not excited. But I -- we haven't come across any life or death situations and we don't know when the water's going down and some of these folks, on some of the videos, they don't need to be out there with no power, not knowing how long it's going to before they can get out of there.

LEMON: Pastor thank you. As I said last night you're doing god's work. Bless you. Continue.

STEVENS: Thank you.

[23:40:00] LEMON: We will check back with you. When we come back, unexpected danger in the rising waters. I'm going to talk to a woman who saw, an alligator or maybe alligators in her backyard.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I want to tell you a lot about the dangers of flood water, I want everybody sit down and watch this. As this waters rise in the flood zone there are worries about just what exactly is in that water. I want to discuss this now with John Warner, he is an alligator programmer, program leader with Texas parks and wildlife who joins me by phone and also Arlene Gonzales Kelsh who found something unexpected in her flooded backyard. Good evening to both of you, Arlene before we get started, I got to check on how you're doing on your current situation, are you ok? Do you have food, water, and supplies?

[23:45:12] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I am doing well, thank you. Especially compared to the many people that everybody's seeing on the stories having to be rescued by boat or wading through feet of water. I actually connected to a friend of mine I made -- we went to junior high together and found out through Facebook that we lived a mile apart from each other and when mandatory evacuation took place yesterday I found out she had a suburban and I had a VW beetle and so we came to the conclusion her vehicle could with stand the waters way better than mine.

LEMON: She came and got you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her two story house. So if it flooded I could go up there.

LEMON: So let's talk about - I want to talk about the danger of the flood waters and you can testify to that because I understand the flood waters have brought some unexpected visitors. Here is a video that you took, tell us what you saw in your backyard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The morning after the hard rain that had come down and gators aren't uncommon in our area. The backyard faces a lake and so when I woke up and I saw that there were so many feet already of rain that had already built up in the backyard, I thought I'd take a peek of what I saw. It was just a piece of wood that was floating in the water. Fill would trees back there and there's a storm but then I noticed it was moving a little bit differently than a piece of wood move be moving through the water. It was close. I think he spotted me. That was the first one that I saw.

LEMON: How many did you see?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two. There were two. I went to check on him a little while later. I wanted to always keep an eye out on where it was. When I started to heading back to that particular window, I stopped, because I saw he was much closer. And that is when I realized I could see something moving from the corner of my eye. So there were two now.

LEMON: Goodness, gracious. Ok standby Arlene, I want to bring in John, CNN has heard from the operative gator country park. He says they're all accounted for. So the gators Arlene saw, likely wild ones. What can you tell us about the gators and how dangerous they are?

JOHN WARNER, PROGRAM LEADER, TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE: So the American alligator is a native species to southeast Texas. We have over half a million alligators in the state and they're a critical part of our aquatic ecosystem in this part of the country. In situations like this where we have obviously a significant amount of rainfall and flooding, alligators are going to be displaced, observed in places where there may be normally not seen and I appreciate her concern and her appreciation for that. Yeah, and just very good chance you're going to bump into them where you won't and as soon as the waters recede, they'll be back in to their normal habitat. Not a big issue as far as human health and safety is concerned. As far as gator country, they are accounted for. Even if all of them escaped, it's a drop in the bucket compared to our wild population down here. It's something that anybody native to southeast Texas has to deal with is alligators and just can't over emphasize their importance and what they mean to lot of our people down here as far as the sustainable natural resource. We hunt alligators down here.

LEMON: Oh, I know. Hey, John, I got to ask you because I grew up in Louisiana and you see them all the time. Listen, it's not just gators because when that flood happens you got lot of snakes being driven out of the ground, big ants you see, water moccasins, fire ants. You got a whole bunch of stuff that is in that water.

WARNER: Yeah, you're exactly right. And you know, with this type of flooding any animal, reptiles, amphibians, and basically you know, try and stay safe and stay dry and do what they can do, but again, by all means, as soon as the water starts to recede, we're going to go back to normal here.

[23:50:18] LEMON: Yes, John, thank you. Arlene, you still there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am still here.

LEMON: Arlene, good luck. No more gators. When you get home, you better check your yard, good, all right.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look, my friends from Louisiana are already talking about giving me, gumbo recipes.

LEMON: We do like gators in our gumbo. Thank you, good luck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

LEMON: We appreciate it. When we come back, more survival stories from the flood zone and the picture that tells an incredible story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We've been at thing you survival stories tonight about neighbor helping neighbor across the flood zone. But this photo really tells the story. It was taken by a man named Louis DeLuca, he is a senior staff photographer for the Dallas morning news. He joins me now. Thank you, sir. Doing ok?

LOUIS DELUCA, SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER, DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Just fine, thanks. Thanks for having me on.

[23:55:00] LEMON: I know you had a very long day. You drove all over Texas and had an early start. This photograph, let's put it back up again, you took, has taken off on social media, becoming one of the iconic photographs of the storm. And it has been shared everywhere. Can you tell us about the people in this image and this moment?

DELUCA: Yes. I was on a freeway outside of Houston on the west side just taking some pictures of these boat rescues where the boats were actually on the freeway and there was so much water, they were jet skis, all kind of stuff. And they were like going down the freeway like a car would. They would get off on the exit and go down into the neighborhoods and get people out of their houses. Bring them back up the exit, back up the freeway to where high ground was, and this particular photograph, there's a Houston SWAT Officer who is carrying a lady that was rescued from a residence and in her arms is her little son. And he is like blissfully ignorant of everything going on. He is got a nice nap working it looks like. And it apparently this has touched a lot of people.

LEMON: As it should be. He should be blissfully unaware of everything. This picture as I said and has been the embodiment of neighbor helping neighbor. Do you think this picture can be the inspiration for people dealing with Harvey's devastation?

DELUCA: Well, I hope so. I mean, if -- if the reaction from most people that I've seen, it obviously resonates with a lot of people. I think you know, with a lot of the stuff that is going on in our country here lately, having something that is kind of a positive image that just shows like you said, neighbor helping neighbor. And there's kind of a quiet strength I think in the photo that even though you're in a bad situation that there's a little bit of peace and calm which to me is almost otherworldly, you be know? And so even when things are going really bad, having some sort of peace and calm like that is a good thing. And hopefully, maybe people can remember that you know, even in something bad thing good can happen.

LEMON: As a photographer in the Dallas morning news, you've witnessed amazing scenes over the years. Where does this one rank?

DELUCA: Well, I mean, I've never had a photo have so much attention on social media, but I'm so old that a lot of my stuff was before social media even existed. So I would say as far as input from people and just response, its number one.

LEMON: Yes, you were from a time like me when photographs were on book shelves and in frames rather than in people's phones. Thank you, sir. Great picture. Thank you. Appreciate it.

DELUCA: Thank you.

LEMON: When we come back, more stories of survival and the latest on the storm expected to make a second landfall in a matter of hours.

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