‘CATASTROPHIC’ HARVEY CAUSES DEADLY FLOODS IN TEXAS
A RECORD 50 INCHES OF RAIN EXPECTED AMID WARNINGS OF TORNADOES, STORM SURGES
More than 3,000 national and state guard troops are being deployed to assist with relief and recovery efforts as the United States’ fourth-largest city and surrounding areas try to cope with Hurricane Harvey, which since has transformed into a storm of historic proportions.
Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news conference Sunday that the perpetual rain and dire flash flooding has produced the strongest storm the state has seen in at least 50 years. He could not confirm death totals nor the number of evacuations, but the National Weather Service reported five deaths. The service issued a statement that the storm was “catastrophic” and “beyond anything experienced.”
By Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service was predicting that parts of Texas could receive nearly 50 inches (127 cm) of rain, the largest recorded total in the state’s history. Communities in southeastern Texas, already experiencing water so high that it engulfed vehicles up to their car handles, were continually being beaten by heavy sideways rain.
The flood warnings also came with urgent pleas for residents to be cautious, stay indoors and not attempt to travel flooded roadways. Police and rescue workers implored residents who see flood waters rising near their homes to make their way to the highest point possible — even if it is a roof — while awaiting rescue. On Saturday night, a woman was found dead by her vehicle, believed to have been trapped during a flood.
More than 66,000 homes were without electricity. The U. S. Coast Guard dispatched five helicopters and Houston is expecting about 40 additional boats to find those in need of help, Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a news conference. He defended the decision not to issue evacuation orders, noting that it would have been a “nightmare” to empty out the population of his city and the county all at once.
“You literally cannot put 6.5 million people on the road,” Turner said.
“This disaster is going to be a landmark event,” said Brock Long, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, speaking to CNN’s State of the Union.
He said he expects the agency to be working in the area for years as Texas recovers from the storm.
By 7 a.m. Sunday( Central Time ), the U.S. National Weather Service had recorded close to 25 inches of rain in Houston, with an additional three to seven inches expected. Warnings for flash flooding and tornadoes remained in place for a large swath of the state, and storm surges are expected along the coast, bringing flooding to typically dry areas. William H. Hobby Airport was shut down.
“There’s flooding all over this city,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said in alive stream video early Sunday morning. “We have one fatality, and a poten- tial second fatality from the flood waters out here.”
As it scrambles to open shelters across Texas, the Red Cross command centre in Houston is now “physi cally i solated” because of flood waters, said Paul Carden, district director of Red Cross activities in South Texas, which includes Corpus Christi.
U. S. President Donald Trump sought to showcase the federal government’s response to Hurricane Harvey in a tweetstorm of his own Sunday, marvelling over its size like a TV host and announcing a visit to Texas with the natural disaster only just beginning to take its catastrophic toll.
In a series of tweets, Trump said his administration was handling its responsibilities well and, in a tangential aside, hawked a book on race and crime in Amer- ica written by a supporter.
“Wow — Now experts are calling # Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all- out effort going, and going well!”
He later added: “Even experts have said they’ve never seen one like this!”
Trump, who spent most of the weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., convened a Cabinet meeting by telephone Sunday which included Vice President Mike Pence. He tweeted a promise of a Texas visit “as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption” — later announced by the White House as Tuesday.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott loaded heavy praise on Trump and the federal government, describing an “Aplus” effort.