Trapped Texas residents told to take to roofs
● Warning of another 40in of rain in Texas after ‘catastrophic’ deluge
People trapped by rising floodwaters in Texas have been told to take to their roofs and wait for rescue as emergency services deal with thousands of desperate calls for help.
The deluge from Storm Harvey has dumped tens of inches of rain on the state, amid fears up to five people have been killed.
Some 50 children were among those rescued from two apartment blocks in Houston.
Texas governor Greg Abbott said conditions were “bad and growing worse” as National Guard troops were deployed to the city to save anyone trapped by the rising amount of water.
Rescuers battled heavy downpours to save hundreds of people from rising flood waters along the ravaged Texas coastline in the wake of Hurricane Harvey which has killed an estimated five poeple.
At least 14 others have been injured, some seriously, as forecasters warned of continuing heavy rainfall in Texas after “catastrophic” flooding.
The forecast for days of steady rain threatens to inundate the flat landscape, including Houston, with as much as 40 inches of water expected in coming days, the National Weather Service warned.
Flooding in the Houston area is expected to worsen and “could become historic”, with “potentially significant flooding also expected in other saturated areas”, the foreon caster said. In one incident in Houston, police evacuated two blocks of flats, rescuing more than 50 children and 300 adults from rising water.
Houston police chief Art Acevedo said, “It breaks your heart,” as he stood in waisthigh water. “But it’s Texas. We’ll get through it.”
In Port Aransas, officials could not fully survey the island town because of “massive” damage.
Mayor Charles Bujan, who had called for a mandatory evacuation, said: “I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that’s about it.”
Some of the worst damage was in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 people that was directly in the storm’s path. The town’s roads were a mess of toppled power poles. Wood framing from ripped apart houses was strewn along streets on the south of the town.
Harvey’s relentless wind had torn the metal sides off the high school gym and twisted the steel door frame of its auditorium.
Homeowners in badly flooded areas have been told to go their roofs and wait to be rescued.
Aransas County spokesman Larry Sinclair said: “We’re still in the very infancy stage of getting this recovery started.”
One person was confirmed killed in a fire at home during the storm in Aransas County.
A woman who tried to get out of her vehicle in high water died in flooding in Harris County in Houston.
More than 300,000 customers were without power across the state, with officials saying it would probably be several days before electricity is restored.
In Houston, authorities pleaded with people not to leave their homes as a flood emergency was declared. “The streets are treacherous,” mayor Sylvester Turner said.
Elsewhere in the storm’s aftermath, the Coast Guard had rescued 20 people from boats and barges in distress, said Captain Tony Hahn, commander of the Corpus Christi sector.
The Corpus Christi port was closed with extensive damage. Because it is the third-largest petrochemical port in the US, the agency will be on the lookout for spills, Mr Hahn said.
The fiercest hurricane to hit the US in more than a decade came ashore late on Friday about 30 miles north-east of Corpus Christi, as a Category 4 storm with 130mph winds.
Last night, Harvey was centred about 65 miles southeast of San Antonio, with maximum sustained winds of about 45mph, according to the National Hurricane Centre, which described the flooding as “catastrophic”.
The hurricane posed the first major emergency management test of Donald Trump’s administration.
The president met his Cabinet and other administration officials to discuss the federal response to the damage and flooding.
Mr Trump held a video conference from Camp David in which he instructed departments and agencies to “stay fully engaged and positioned to support his number one priority of saving lives,” a statement said.