HELL AND HIGH WATER
Texas reels from Harvey Biblical floods submerge Houston
HURRICANE HARVEY slowed to a tropical storm but continued to drench large swaths of Texas, leaving at least five dead and sending rescue crews scrambling to save Houston residents from two-story-high floods.
The record-setting storm swamped the streets and underpasses of the nation’s fourth-largest city and its greater metropolitan area, filling homes and buildings with turbid waters.
Thousands of stranded residents — who had been told to stay put in their homes — desperately dialed 911 or reached out to local law enforcement via Twitter.
As the floodwaters rose, local officials urged those who were trapped to stay out of their attics and climb to their roofs. Some did just that, waving towels on top of their homes in hopes of getting the attention of rescue crews.
Coast Guard choppers saved more than 100 people. Still more were reached by boats and highwater vehicles ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott.
Other residents waded through chest-high waters holding belongings over their heads or clinging to rubber rafts and inflatable mattresses to float down currents past submerged trees and cars.
A bedraggled Gillis Leho sought safety at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston on Sunday after she and her grandchildren escaped her home.
“When they told us the current was getting too high, we had to bust a window to get out,” said Leho, who was among the hundreds of people using the center as a shelter.
The breadth of destruction and displacement forced federal officials to make a sobering pronouncement — the Lone Star State’s recovery will be slow and difficult.
Brock Long, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, called Harvey a “landmark event” and predicted his agency would need to assist the hardest-hit areas for years to come.
“This will be a devastating disaster, probably the worst disaster the state’s seen,” Long told The Washington Post.
The National Weather Service reported that at least five people had died far from Harvey. The death toll was expected to rise.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez shared an unconfirmed report on Twitter that a mother and child may have died in a submerged vehicle.
One woman died Saturday in Harris County — which includes Houston — after driving through a flooded street and opening her car door. That same day another person was killed in a house fire in Aransas County.
Abbott declined to give a death toll at a news conference Sunday, noting that it was too soon to assess the deadly consequences of Harvey.
The National Weather Service said Harvey — which was downgraded to a tropical storm Saturday — is expected to linger for days as it makes its way back toward the Gulf of Mexico.
The agency estimated that most of Houston would get an average of 40 inches of rain. However, it predicted that some parts of the city and its suburbs could get a Texas record of 50 inches.
“The breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before,” the agency said a statement.
The storm’s fury sent federal and state officials scrambling to assemble a response team. President Trump said he would visit Texas on Tuesday.
He also took to Twitter to marvel at the storm’s unprecedented ferocity and the federal government’s response.
“Wow — Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!” he wrote.
Abbott said 3,000 members of the national and state guard had been activated and that 18 Texas counties had been designated federal disaster areas. Another 1,000 will be sent to Houston on Monday. The Republican governor also praised Trump’s response to the storm.
Meanwhile, Houston Mayor
Sylvester Turner was under fire over his decision to not ask the city’s 2.3 million residents to leave their homes before Harvey’s heavy rain began.
Abbott had told residents to flee Harvey. But Turner never issued an evacuation order.
He defended his actions at a news conference, saying he didn’t want to create panic.
“If you think the situation right now is bad and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare,” Turner said.
Many of those who stayed were left in darkness and with spotty cell phone reception.
The Houston Chronicle reported that by Sunday afternoon, 75,000 homes were without power in the city.
The flooding forced local law enforcement in Harris County to prioritize responses to life-anddeath situations.
Houston’s Office of Emergency Management said its 911 system was inundated with more than 56,000 calls from 10 p.m. on Saturday to 1 p.m. on Sunday. The city receives about 8,000 calls on an average day.
Many of the requests for help were made to local government over Twitter.
In a heartbreaking tweet, a woman begged for Houston rescue operations to save a toddler stranded in a home in the Edgewater area.
The woman, Stephanie Atkinson, posted a photo of the little girl with the SOS message: “Need rescue, girl on ventilator, no power, in flooded home.”
Hours later, Atkinson wrote, “She was rescued!!!”
Overwhelmed Harris County officials also encouraged residents with boats to pitch in with rescue operations.
Tom Bartlett and Steven Craig used a rowboat to reach Bartlett’s 88-year-old mother, who was trapped in a house in west Houston.
The two men found Marie Bartlett waiting in her upstairs bedroom. Water had risen halfway up the first floor’s walls.
“When I was younger, I used to wish I had a daughter, but I have the best son in the world,” she said. “In my 40 years here, I’ve never seen the water this high.”