Harvey storms Texas
America told to be ready for ‘catastrophic’ f looding after hurricane hits
AMERICA was last night braced for ‘catastrophic’ flooding after being hit by its most powerful storm since Katrina.
Hurricane Harvey left a trail of chaos and destruction as it made its way across Texas, with winds of up to 132mph causing buildings to collapse, serious casualties and widespread power cuts.
Amid warnings of floods in the coming days, officials reported heavy damage across the worst-hit coastal areas. .
Houston, America’s fourthbiggest city and one of its most flood- prone urban areas, saw five i nches of rain i n some places. Flood and tornado alerts were issued and the banks of several bayous broke, spilling water on to roads.
There were claims of people trapped in destroyed buildings, although no deaths had been reported by yesterday morning.
About 4,500 inmates at three Texas prisons south of the city began being evacuated shortly before noon after a nearby river rose ominously high.
Judge Ed Emmett, the top elected official for the county t hat i ncludes Houston, said his city’s primary concern was heavy flooding. ‘ We are not having a hurricane,’ he said. ‘We are having a rain event.’
The Category 4 hurricane slammed ashore near the city of Corpus Christi shortly before 10pm local time on Friday. It is only the fourth storm of such force to strike the US mainland in 48 years.
President Donald Trump signed a disaster proclamation from his Camp David retreat, freeing up federal funds for relief efforts.
Later he t weeted t hat t he government was ‘leaving nothing to chance’ and praised emergency services.
He received a briefing from his new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) boss Brock Long, a well-regarded former director of the Alabama state agency.
President George W. Bush suffered irreparable harm to his reputation over the poor government response to Hurri- cane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005 and left 1,500 people dead.
After Hurricane Harvey struck the town of Rockport, many homes a nd bui l di ngs were destroyed. Mayor Charles Wax said: ‘We took a Category 4 storm right on the nose.’
Local officials urged people who had refused to evacuate to write names and social security numbers on their arms to allow for quick identification if killed.
Ten people were taken to the county’s jail for assessment and treatment after the roof of a housing complex for older people collapsed. Emergency services said a high school, hotel and many other buildings suffered structural damage. Almost 300,000 people were left without power along the coast.
Winds dropped to 90mph as the hurricane weakened over land but the storm is expected to batter Texas for four days.
The National Weather Service warned this was the ‘ start of many difficult days to come’ with potentially ‘record-setting rainfall’ of up to 40 inches.
‘ Rainfall of this magnitude will cause catastrophic and lifethreatening flooding,’ said the National Hurricane Center.
Seven Texas coastal counties ordered mandatory evacuations from low-lying areas, with four of them demanding that everyone leave and warning there was no guarantee of rescue for anyone staying behind.
Texas governor Gregg Abbott warned: ‘Our greatest concern right now is the ongoing flooding that will take place.’
‘We took a Category 4 storm on the nose’