Floods spark chaos in Houston
Harvey forces airports and highways to shut down, more rain expected
HOUSTON: Massive flooding unleashed by deadly monster storm Harvey left Houston — the fourth-largest city in the United States — increasingly isolated Sunday as its airports and highways shut down and residents were rescued from their inundated homes by boat.
The city’s two main airports suspended all commercial flights and two hospitals were forced to evacuate patients. A local television station also was knocked off the air.
At least three people have been killed so far, with reports of other fatalities still unconfirmed. As night fell, dramatic rescues — sometimes by volunteers with their own boats — were still taking place.
The National Hurricane Center called the flooding ‘unprecedented’ and said the storm, which crashed ashore late Friday as a huge Category 4 hurricane, would move into the Gulf before doubling back midweek, bringing even more rain.
President Donald Trump, who had said he did not want to disrupt emergency efforts with a visit, is planning to head to the disaster zone on Tuesday, the White House announced.
Rising waters from Harvey inundated roads throughout the Houston area, affecting every major freeway and hamstringing efforts to move people to safety.
“It’s crazy to see the roads you’re driving on every day just completely under water,” Houston resident John Travis told AFP.
Overwhelmed emergency services warned residents to head for high ground or climb onto rooftops — not into attics — so they could be seen by rescue helicopters. More than 2,000 rescues had been made so far.
The local ABC affiliate showed the helicopter rescue of a man and his six-year-son — both named Jeremiah — from the second floor of their home. Each only had the clothes on their back and a backpack.
“This is all we got,” the father said. “We thank God. We thank God.”
Emergency 911 operators in Houston received 56,000 calls in a 15-hour span — seven times more than in a usual full day.
“We are going on fumes our hearts ache for community we serve, but we will not stop!” said Houston police chief Art Acevedo.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned the operation was far from over, given the foreboding forecasts.
“The number of evacuees is increasing. The number in harm’s way will increase also with the rain that is forecast to come,” Abbott said, adding that the storm had already inflicted billions of dollars in damage.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner dismissed the idea that evacuations should have been ordered sooner.
“You issue an evacuation order and put everybody on the highway — you really are asking for a major calamity,” Turner told reporters.
Houston proper has a population of 2.3 million people, but the greater metropolitan area has more than six million.
Trump, who spent the weekend at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, was preparing for his trip to the flood zone on Tuesday.
“The focus must be on life and safety,” he said in a series of tweets about the disaster, his first major domestic challenge since taking office in January.
At least three deaths have been blamed on Harvey, which has spawned tornadoes and lashed east and central Texas with torrential rains.
“The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before,” the National Weather Service said.
Houston opened community centers to shelter people forced out of their homes.
“Even if there’s a lull today, don’t assume the storm is over,” Turner said. — AFP
It’s crazy to see the roads you’re driving on every day just completely under water. John Travis, Houston resident
HOUSTON: Bryan Curtis normally rides his jet ski for fun. On Sunday, he turned it into an emergency rescue vehicle.
Curtis – who lives in Conroe, a little to the north of Houston – was one of the many civilians who pitched in to help evacuate those stranded in rapidly rising floodwaters in Texas’s biggest city unleashed by monster storm Harvey.
I’m not even thinking about myself right now to tell you the truth. It’s just people need help, I’m here to help, I want to do my part. Curtis from Conroe
“I’m not even thinking about myself right now to tell you the truth. It’s just people need help, I’m here to help, I want to do my part,” he told AFP.
With the official emergency services overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster in Houston, the fourth biggest city in the United States, it was sometimes left to an army of volunteers to save the day.
Some formed human chains while others fired up their motorboats to pluck their fellow Texans to safety from the floodwaters swamping the Lone Star state.
After more than 60 centimetres of rain fell in Houston in a 24-hour period, some streets resembled canals, making it impossible for cars to navigate the city.
Some of the few vehicles that could be seen on the streets were giant trucks, loaded with evacuees who had gratefully clambered on board after hearing offers of help.
“We continually go through these neighborhoods and are actually calling out on our loudspeakers trying to get people’s attention and saying: ‘Hey, are you ready to evacuate?’” said local law enforcement officer Alan Rosen.
“We’re just inundated. There’s not enough resources – there never is enough resources – to actually go around and save everybody,” he told the local KTRK TV channel after loading up one of the rescue vehicles with dozens of evacuees.
“We’re doing absolutely the best we can.”
One man was spotted clinging to a tree on Saturday night by police patrol officers who then formed a human chain across a a bayou to save him. He later posed grinning broadly without his rescuers on the local police department’s Twitter feed.
With so many roads under water, a boat ride was the only option for some of those stranded in outlying areas.
James Lofton, a resident of the suburb of Spring Valley, made multiple journeys on his boat to ferry residents to safety from a nearby hotel to safety.
“We’ve just been carrying people back and forth from the Omni most of the afternoon,” Lofton told AFP.
One of the last to leave the hotel was a woman who recently had back surgery who was delicately brought on board.
“Obviously she’s had surgery and is in a lot of pain. This was a very painful ride for her,” said Lofton.
Curtis said he and a friend had contacted the emergency management office to offer their jet ski services.
“We’re just waiting on a phone call from them to see where they need us at,” he said.
Some of the most dramatic rescues came as helicopters winched those stranded on the upper floors of houses to safety.
The Houston-based ABC 13 channel captured footage of a father and his six-year-old son, both called Jeremiah, climbing out of a second floor window and into a makeshift basket dangling from a chopper, with one bag on each of their backs.
“This is all that we got,” said the father. “We thank God. We thank God.” — AFP