After the havoc of Hurricane Harvey, Texans wait for floods

THE fiercest hurricane to hit the United States in more than a decade caused widespread damage and dumped torrents of rain along hundreds of miles of the Texas coastline.

Residents were warned of “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” to come, after Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Friday night with 130mph winds battering buildings, knocking down trees and electricity cables, and leaving up to 300,000 without power.

One person died in a house fire as Harvey roared across Rockport, Texas, said CJ Wax, the town’s mayor. Officials in Texas expected to find more fatalities as search and rescue operations continued.

Rockport, a coastal town of about 10,000 people, where two thirds of residents had already evacuated, was directly in the storm’s path. Mr Wax said it had been hit “right on the nose” and there was “widespread devastation”. The roof of a high school reportedly caved in, and 10 people were taken to the county jail for treatment after a roof collapse at a nursing home.

The mayor added that emergency services had been hampered by a loss of mobile phone service. One man who stayed in the town said: “The storm sounded like a train with square wheels. It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever been through. I saw trees going down, roofs blowing off. I’ve got 300-year-old oak trees down in my yard, a magnolia tree on my roof.”

Rockport resident Frank Cook, 56, said: “If you have something left of your house, you’re lucky.”

Up to 20 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours in some places and there were warnings of flash floods. Texans were warned to look out for alligators. The Fort Bend County Sheriff ’s Office said: “Expect them to be displaced. Simply looking for higher ground. Leave alone until water recedes.”

The storm stirred memories of Hurricane Katrina, which made a direct hit on New Orleans in 2005 and led to 1,800 deaths. Harvey was the first natural disaster to hit the US since Donald Trump became president. Mr Trump, who intends to visit Texas early next week, signed a disaster declaration late on Friday night which he said would “unleash the full force of government help”.

As many as six million people were believed to be in Harvey’s path and tens of thousands fled inland before it hit. In Corpus Christi, the closest major city to the storm’s centre, streets were littered with lamp posts, trees and roof tiles.

Donna McClure, a resident, wrote on Twitter: “In the dark, internet out, ham radio not working. Is anybody out there? Alone trying not to be scared.”

Harvey came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane, the fiercest to hit Texas since 1961. It moved slowly inland and was later downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane and then to a tropical storm.

But forecasters suggested as much as 40 inches of rain may fall by next Wednesday. The National Hurricane Centre said that could unleash “catastrophic” flooding. The potential cost of the storm could be up to $40 billion.

Steve Sims, the volunteer fire chief in Rockport, said: “We’ve heard rumours of 1,000 different things, we can’t confirm anything. We know we’ve got a lot of problems, but we don’t know what yet.”

More than 15,000 people on three Carnival cruise ships were facing delays. The Carnival Freedom and Carnival Valor were due to dock in Galveston, Texas, on Saturday but instead headed to New Orleans. The Carnival Breeze delayed its departure to Galveston.

‘The storm sounded like a train with square wheels. It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever been through’