Harvey not through yet, two more feet expected
Tropical Storm Harvey could dump nearly 2 more feet of rain around Houston by the time the slow-churning system finishes soaking the region, where the death toll — and floodwaters — continue to rise with little relief in sight.
Confirmed deaths ranged from three to as many as 10 people amid Harvey’s unyielding downpours, according to reports, and forecasters say the storm that has inundated southeast Texas since the weekend could drop another 20 inches of rain by Thursday, driving totals to more than 50 inches. A reported 3,052 people have been rescued.
“It sounds like the rain is actually pounding the ground,” said Brian Barrett, a Peabody native and co-host of a radio show in Houston, though it was off-air yesterday amid the storm. “The winds are howling, and I have never heard rain like this before. It sounds like it is actually slamming into the ground.”
The storm’s havoc isn’t expected to subside.
The National Hurricane Center warned of “catastrophic and life-threatening” flooding and the storm, which has lingered around Houston since Friday, is expected to hover nearby today before again moving inland at some point tomorrow.
Roughly 30,000 people could ultimately be forced from their homes and into shelters, officials said. Houston police Chief Art Acevedo acknowledged he is “really worried about how many bodies we’re going to find,” according to The Associated Press.
Officials said yesterday they were looking into a Houston television report that six family members were believed to have drowned when their van was swept away by floodwaters, though as of last night, no bodies had been recovered.
According to KHOU, those feared dead included four children and their grandparents, whose van hit high water on Sunday when trying to cross a bridge.
Officials were also warning people not to try to drive and escape through floodwaters, or in some cases, gather for what the National Weather Service called storm “spectating.”
“Rescues are underway and do not need additional obstructions,” the weather service’s Houston account wrote in a tweet last night.
The storm’s impact is also growing elsewhere. In Louisiana, where Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago ripped through New Orleans, officials there were warning of heavy rain and dangerous conditions.
In Washington, attention to the storm jumped between forecasts and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s balance sheets. FEMA said its disaster fund contains more than $3 billion, but that the Harvey response was “quickly drawing down” available funds.
President Trump said Congress would move quickly to pass a multibillion-dollar Harvey recovery package.
Harvey is being characterized as an unprecedented event, pounding Houston — the country’s fourth-largest city — with 15 trillion gallons of water as of yesterday, and counting.
“We have not seen an event like this,” FEMA Administrator William Long said yesterday, according to The Washington Post. “You could not draw this forecast up. You could not dream this forecast up.”