Harvey makes second landfall, hitting Louisiana
HOUSTON (AFP) — Five days after slamming into Texas as a major hurricane, Harvey made a second landfall on Wednesday, hitting Louisiana, a state which still bears deep scars from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
Now a tropical storm, Harvey made landfall just west of the town of Cameron, the National Hurricane Center said, with “flooding rains” drenching parts of southeastern Texas and neighboring southwestern Louisiana.
Harvey’s return comes after the monster storm pummeled Texas with record rainfall, transforming roads into rivers and forcing thousands out of their homes in America’s fourth largest city Houston.
Residents of western Louisiana braced for Harvey’s maximum sustained winds of close to 72 kilometers per hour, with forecasters predicting another five to 10 inches of rain could hit the region.
They expect Harvey will gradually weaken to a tropical depression by tonight.
But low-lying New Orleans was still girding for the storm, which made landfall a day after the 12-year anniversary of Katrina, which ravaged the vulnerable city famous for its jazz and cuisine.
The New Orleans branch of the National Weather Service (NWS) said a heavy rain threat remained over southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi and would continue through Friday.
In Texas, emergency crews were still struggling to reach hundreds of stranded people in a massive round-the-clock rescue operation — but the NWS tweeted that weather conditions there were to finally improve.
The NWS had earlier said Harvey appeared to have broken a US record for most rain from a single tropical cyclone, with nearly 52 inches recorded in the Texan town of Cedar Bayou.
In Houston, city officials were preparing to temporarily house some 19,000 people, with thousands more expected to flee.
As of Tuesday morning, nearly 50,000 homes had suffered flood damage, Texas officials said, and the tally is certain to rise.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced curfew from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. amid reports of looting, armed robberies and people impersonating police officers.
Harvey has drawn comparisons with Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,800 people and causing an estimated $108 billion in damage.
Among the confirmed fatalities was Houston Police Sergeant Steve Perez, a 34-year veteran of the force who drowned while attempting to drive to work on Sunday.
In Beaumont, northeast of Houston, a woman clutching her baby daughter was swept away in raging flooding. The baby was saved but the mother died, Beaumont police said.