NO RELIEF IN SIGHT
Chaos ensued in Houston, Texas, Monday as flood waters continued to rise after hurricane Harvey made landfall north of Corpus Christi late Friday evening. People had to leave their homes and struggle down inundated streets to safety. Authorities worry the worst is yet to come. Harvey is expected to dump nearly 60 more centimetres of rain in Texas. For more coverage of the natural disaster,
Flood waters reached the rooflines of single-storey homes Monday and people could be heard pleading for help from inside as Harvey poured rain on the Houston area for a fourth consecutive day after a chaotic weekend of rising water and rescues.
The nation’s fourth-largest city was still largely paralyzed by one of the largest downpours in United States history. And there was no relief in sight from the storm that spun into Texas as a Category 4 hurricane, then parked itself over the Gulf Coast. With nearly 61 centimetres of rain expected on top of the 76 centimetres in some places, authorities worried about whether the worst was yet to come.
Harvey has been blamed for at least three confirmed deaths, including a woman killed Monday in the town of Porter, northeast of Houston, when a large oak tree dislodged by heavy rains toppled onto her trailer home.
A Houston television station reported Monday that six family members were believed to have drowned when their van was swept away by flood waters. The KHOU report was attributed to three family members the station did not identify. No bodies have been recovered.
Police Chief Art Acevedo told The Associated Press that he had no information about the report but said that he’s “really worried about how many bodies we’re going to find.”
According to the station, four children and their grandparents were feared dead after the van hit high water Sunday when crossing a bridge in the Greens Bayou area.
The driver of the vehicle, the children’s greatuncle, reportedly escaped by grabbing a tree limb before the van sank. He told the children to try to escape through the back door, but they were unable to get out.
The disaster unfolded on an epic scale in one of America’s most sprawling metropolitan centres. The Houston metro area covers about 16,000 square kilometres, an area slightly bigger than New Jersey. It’s criss-crossed by about thousands of kilometres of channels, creeks and bayous that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, about 80 kilometres to the southeast from downtown.
The flooding was so widespread that the levels of city waterways have either equalled or surpassed those of tropical storm Allison from 2001, and no major highway has been spared.
The city’s normally bustling business district was virtually deserted Monday.
Elsewhere, water gushed from two reservoirs as officials sought to release pressure on a pair of 70-year-old dams that protect downtown. Water was at risk of spilling around the sides of the barriers, which have a long history of seepage. The move was supposed to help shield the business district from flood waters, but it could also flood thousands more homes.
Meanwhile, rescuers continued plucking people from the flood waters — at least 2,000 so far, according to Acevedo. At least 185 critical rescue requests were still pending on Monday morning, he said. Rescuers were giving priority to life-and-death situations, leaving many people to fend for themselves.