‘Incredibly dangerous’ plume after plant blasts
FIRES and two explosions have rocked a flooded chemical plant in Texas, sending up a plume that federal authorities described as “incredibly dangerous” and adding a potential new hazard to the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
The blasts at the Arkema plant, about 40km (25 miles) north-east of Houston, also ignited a 30-40ft flame.
The French operator of the plant said up to eight more chemical containers could burn and explode.
Local officials insisted that the explosion produced no toxins.
The blasts happened as floodwaters from days of relentless rain began to recede and the threat of major dangers from the storm shifted to a region near the Texas-Louisiana line.
Fire authorities said the blasts were small and that some deputies suffered irritated eyes from the smoke, but they emphasised that the materials that caught fire shortly after midnight were not toxic.
Even so, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality urged people in the area to stay indoors with their windows closed and air conditioners running, and to restrict physical activity.
Particles from smoke and chemicals can affect people with heart and lung problems.
At a news conference in Washington DC, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, told reporters that the plume was hazardous.
In the largely rural area surrounding the plant, officials said they went door to door to explain the situation and called on residents to evacuate, but leaving was not mandatory.
The plant in Crosby had lost power after the storm, leaving it without refrigeration for chemicals that become volatile as temperatures rise. Arkema had shut down the plant before Harvey made landfall.
In Houston, rescues continued apace. The fire department planned to begin a street-by-street search of thousands of flooded homes to look for anyone left behind in the floodwaters, a process that was expected to take one to two weeks.
The latest surveys indicate that the storm and floodwaters have caused major damage to more than 37,000 homes and destroyed nearly 7,000.
Further east, Beaumont and Port Arthur struggled with rising water after being pounded with what remained of the weakening storm.
The confirmed death toll climbed to at least 31, including six family members – four of them children – whose bodies were pulled on Wednesday from a van that had been swept off a Houston bridge into a bayou.
Beaumont and Port Arthur worked to evacuate residents.
Port Arthur found itself increasingly isolated as floodwaters swamped most major roads out of the city.
Floodwaters also toppled two oil storage tanks in south Texas, spilling almost 30,000 gallons of crude. It was not immediately clear whether any of the spilled oil was recovered.
More damage to the oil industry infrastructure is expected to emerge as floodwaters recede.
Forecasters downgraded Harvey from a tropical storm to a tropical depression on Wednesday, but it still has lots of rain and potential damage to spread, with 4-8in forecast from the Louisiana-Texas line into Tennessee and Kentucky until Friday.
For much of the Houston area, forecasters said the rain is pretty much over. Residents were warned about the dangers of heat exhaustion if they have lost power or must work outdoors, with temperatures expected to climb into the low 90s through the weekend.
Houston’s two major airports were up and running again on Wednesday. Officials said they were resuming limited bus and light rail service as well as rubbish collections.
At the same time, many thousands of homes in the Houston area are under water and could stay that way for days or weeks. Officials said 911 centres in the Houston area are getting more than 1,000 calls an hour from people seeking help.
Altogether, more than 1,000 homes in Texas were destroyed and close to 50,000 damaged, and over 32,000 people were in shelters across the state, emergency officials reported. About 10,000 more National Guard troops are being deployed to Texas, bringing the total to 24,000.
Harvey’s five straight days of rain totalled close to 52in, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental US.