HARVEY FLOODS TO STAY AWHILE
Reservoir releases would keep homes inundated for 2 weeks
A week after hurricane hit, Houston’s mayor announces that ongoing releases of water from two reservoirs could keep thousands of homes flooded for up to 15 days.
HOUSTON — Officials in Houston sought Friday to safeguard parts of their devastated city by keeping others flooded in the wake of Harvey, which retained enough rain-making power to raise the risk of flooding in the middle of the country a week after it slammed into Texas.
The mayor announced that ongoing releases of water from two reservoirs could keep thousands of homes flooded for up to 15 days and told residents that if they stayed and later needed help, first responders’ resources could be further strained.
Thick black smoke and towering orange flames shot up Friday after two trailers of highly unstable compounds blew up at a flooded Houston-area chemical plant, the second fire there in two days.
Arkema says Harvey’s floodwaters engulfed its backup generators at the plant in Crosby and knocked out the refrigeration necessary to keep the organic peroxides, used in such products as plastics and paints, from degrading and catching fire. Arkema executive Richard Rennard said two containers caught fire Friday evening, and that there are six more it expects will eventually catch fire.
Arkema spokeswoman Janet Smith said that the company expects the rest of the containers will ignite “within a matter of days.”
In another Texas city with no drinking water, people waited in a line that stretched for more than a mile to get bottled water. And a new fire erupted Friday evening at a crippled Houston-area chemical plant that was the scene of an earlier explosion and fire.
Residents of the stillflooded western part of Houston were asked to evacuate due to the releases from two reservoirs . The ongoing releases were expected to keep flooded homes that had been filled with water earlier in the week. Homes that are not currently flooded probably will not be affected, officials said.
It could take three months for the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, which are normally dry, to drain. The Harris County Flood Control District said the water releases had to continue to protect the reservoirs’ structural integrity and in case more heavy rain falls.
Some of the affected houses have several feet of water in them, and the water reaches to the rooftops of others, district meteorologist Jeff Lindner said.
Mayor Sylvester Turner pleaded for more highwater vehicles and more search-and-rescue equipment as the nation’s fourth-largest city continued looking for any survivors or corpses that might have somehow escaped notice in flood-ravaged neighborhoods.
Search teams quickly worked their way down streets, sometimes not even knocking on doors if there were obvious signs that all was well — organized debris piles or full cans of trash on the curb, for instance, or neighbors confirming that the residents had evacuated.
Authorities considered it an initial search, though they did not say what subsequent searches would entail or when they would commence.
Authorities raised the death toll from the storm to 42 late Friday, while rescue workers conducted a block-by-block search of tens of thousands of Houston homes.
Turner also asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide more workers to process applications from thousands of people seeking government help. The mayor said he will request a preliminary aid package of $75 million for debris removal alone.
The storm had lost most of its tropical characteristics but remained a source of heavy rain that threatened to cause flooding as far north as Indiana.
By Friday evening, Harvey had dumped more than 9 inches of rain in parts of Arkansas and Tennessee. Its remnants were expected to generate another 1 to 3 inches over parts of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia.
National Weather Service meteorologists expect Harvey to break up and merge with other weather systems over the Ohio Valley late Saturday or Sunday.
More than 1,500 people were staying at shelters in Louisiana, and that number included people from communities in Texas.