Thousands flee as monster storm Harvey heads for Texas
TENS of thousands of Americans fled their homes last night as what was predicted to be the biggest hurricane in 12 years barrelled towards Texas.
Harvey last night strengthened to a Category 4 storm, out of five, with local officials planning for what was widely forecast would be a major disaster.
Greg Abott, the state governor, said yesterday it was “turning into a very complex and dangerous hurricane”.
The hurricane, with winds of up to 130mph, was due to strike the Texas coastline early this morning.
Up to 35in of rain over a four-day period was also forecast.
Towns and cities in Texas and Louisiana, including New Orleans, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, boarded up buildings and built sandbag walls in preparation for flash flooding.
Some highways in the region were turned into one-way roads last night as people evacuated en masse.
Wary of criticism of George W Bush’s response to Katrina, Donald Trump received several briefings on the storm yesterday and tweeted out advice to citizens in its path.
The White House, which released images of the president sitting behind the Resolute Desk and studying forecast maps, announced that he would travel to Texas early next week.
As he headed to the Camp David presidential retreat for the weekend with his family, the president said: “Good luck to everybody.”
Several cruise ships were forced to turn back last night. Carnival said that three of its cruise ships were unable to return to Galveston, Texas.
Two of the ships, the Carnival Freedom and the Carnival Valor, will head for New Orleans where they will pick up fresh supplies. Passengers will have the option of disembarking there.
Several oil refineries shut down yesterday as the hurricane approached, causing fuel prices to rise.
“In terms of economic impact, Harvey will probably be on par with Hurricane Katrina,” said Brian Mcnoldy, University of Miami senior hurricane researcher.
“The Houston area and Corpus Christi are going to be a mess for a long time.”