Battered Texas continues search for Harvey survivors

PORT ARTHUR: A week after Hurricane Harvey came ashore in Texas, rescuers kept up a marathon search for survivors yesterday as large pockets of land remained under water after one of the costliest natural disasters to hit the US.

The storm has displaced over a million people, with 44 feared dead from flooding that paralysed Houston, swelled river levels to record highs and knocked out the drinking water supply in Beaumont, Texas, a city of about 120 000 people.

Chemicals maker Arkema SA and public health officials warned of the risk of more explosions and fires at a plant owned by the company. On Thursday blasts rocked the facility, about 40km east of Houston and zoned off inside a 2.4km exclusion zone, after it was engulfed by floodwater.

With the presence of waterborne contaminants a growing concern, the National Weather Service issued flood watches from Arkansas into Ohio yesterday as the remnants of the storm made their way through the US heartland.

Moody’s Analytics estimated the economic cost from Harvey for south-eastern Texas at $51 billion (R658bn) to $75bn, ranking it among the costliest storms in US history. Much of the damage has been to Houston, the US energy hub.

At least 44 people were dead or feared dead in six counties including and around Houston, officials said. Another 19 remained missing.

About 779 000 Texans have been told to leave their homes and another 980 000 fled voluntarily amid dangers of new flooding.

Tens of thousands crowded in evacuation centres across the region. As floods began to recede in Houston, firefighters on Thursday began houseto-house searches to rescue stranded survivors and recover bodies.

Meanwhile, a new hurricane, Irma, had strengthened into a Category 3 storm yesterday but remained hundreds of kilometres off land.

Flooding has shut some of the nation’s largest oil refineries and hit US energy infrastructure, which is centred along the Gulf Coast.

It has sent petrol prices climbing and disrupted global fuel supplies. – Reuters