Hurricane Harvey brings catastrophic flooding to Texas
● Officials confirm that at least eight people have been killed amid chaos
Catastrophic flooding in Texas is expected to get worse in the coming days as Tropical Storm Harvey continues to pour rain on the Houston area after a chaotic weekend of rising water and rescues.
The United States’ fourthlargest city was still largely paralysed by one of the largest downpours in the country’s history. And there was no relief in sight from the storm that spun into Texas as a Cate - gory 4 hurricane, then parked itself over the Gulf Coast.
With much more rain expected, authorities worried whether the worst was yet to come. Officials have confirmed that at least eight people have been killed.
Harvey has been blamed for at least two confirmed deaths. A Houston television station reported yesterday that six family members were believed to have dr owned when their van was swept away by flood waters. The KHOU report was attributed to three family members not identified by the station. No bodies have been recovered.
Police Chief Art Ac eve do said that he had no information about the report but added that he was “really worried about how many bodies we’re going to find”.
According to the station, four children and their grandparents were feared dead after the van hit high water on Sunday when crossing a bridge in the Greens Bayou area.
The driver of the vehicle, the children’ s great-uncle, reportedly escaped before the van sank by grabbing a tree limb. He told the children to try to escape through the back door, but they were unable to get out.
The disaster unfolded on an epic scale in one of America’s most sprawling metropolitan centres. The Houston metro area covers about 10,000 square miles and is crisscrossed by about 1,700 miles of channels, creeks and bayous that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles southeast from the city centre.
The flooding was so widespread that the levels of city water ways have either equalled or surpassed those of Tropical Storm Allison from 2001, and no major highway has been spared some overflow.
The city’s normally bustling business district was virtually deserted yesterday, with emergency vehicles making up most of the traffic. Most traf- fic signals were out and most businesses closed.
Elsewhere, water gushed from two reservoirs overwhelmed by Harvey as officials sought to release pressure on a pair of dams where flood waters wereat risk of spilling around the sides of the barriers. The move aimed at protecting the central business district risked flooding thousands more homes.
Meanwhile, rescuers continued plucking people from the floodwaters – at least 2,000 so far, according to Acevedo. At least 185 critical rescue requests were still pending yesterday morning, he said.
Rescuers were giving priority to life- and- death situations, leaving many people to fend for themselves.
Chris Thorn was among the many volunteers still helping with the mass evacuation that began on Sunday. He drove with a friend from the Dallas area withtheir flat-bottom hunting boat to pull strangers out of the water.
“I couldn’t sit at home and watch it on TV and do nothing since I have a boat and all the tools to help,” he said.
They got to Spring, Texas, where Cypress Creek had breached Interstate 45, and went to work, helping people out of a gated community. “It’s never flooded here,” resident Lane Cross said from the front of Thorn’s b oat, holding his brown dog, Max. “I don’t even have flood insurance.”
Hous ton’ s 911 system has received 75,000calls since Harveyinundated the city, including 20,000 just since late Sunday. The city normally averages 8,000 to 9,000 calls per day.