Hurricane Harvey slams Texas; 1 dead
At least 1 dead, with more flooding looming, as Texas is hit with ‘widespread devastation’
Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc as it slammed into Texas early Saturday — with swirling 130-mph winds and two feet of rain that destroyed buildings as it flooded coastal towns.
By the afternoon, it had been blamed for the loss of at least one life — that of a person trapped in a burning building — and the injuries to 14 others.
The storm was downgraded Saturday from a Category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm with sustained winds of 70 mph.
But it could make a very unwelcome return. Some forecasters believe that after weakening over land, the storm will churn its way back to the Gulf of Mexico, regain its power and pay the beleaguered area a second visit as a hurricane.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the biggest concern is keeping people safe. He said search-and-rescue missions and clean-up crews are already working around the clock.
“We want to do everything we possibly can to keep people out of rising water,” he said at a press conference Saturday.
Before it’s all over, Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, may have to deal with a total of 40 inches of rain that could bring life-threatening flooding.
“We’re really looking at a multiday rainfall disaster unfolding,” said Mike Brennan, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.
The National Weather Service tweeted, “Remember, this is a multi-day event . . . marathon not a sprint.”
The fatality occurred in the coastal city of Rockport, where Harvey made landfall overnight.
Officials in the area expect to find more bodies as emergency crews conduct searches.
In Rockport, many homes and businesses were destroyed. Utility lines across the city of 10,000 were toppled and cellphone service was spotty.
The roof of the local high school partly collapsed.
Mayor Charles Max said there was “widespread devastation.”
“We took a Category 4 storm right on the nose,” he said.
First responders were unable to answer emergency calls due to whipping winds and flooding, the local fire chief reported.
“Right now, we’re hunkered down and can’t go anywhere,” said Chief Steve Sims.
On Friday, Rockport’s mayor pro tem, Patrick Rios, had an ominous piece of advice for residents planning to stay in the area. He told them to write their names and Social Security numbers on their arms with a Sharpie pen so authorities could identify their bodies if they’re killed.
Federal Emergency Management Agency head Brock Long predicted it would take years for the area to recover.
“This is now turning into a deadly inland event,” he said.
Meanwhile, about 4,500 in- mates were evacuated from three state prisons south of Houston because the nearby Brazos River had risen to dangerous levels, officials said. The inmates were bused to other prisons.
Thousands of residents fled the expected destruction, but others ignored evacuation orders and stayed put.
Chipper Dowell, 44, of Port Lavaca, spent Friday night into Saturday morning holed up with his family in their house one block from the beach.
He ran out onto the beach to snap video of the lashing winds with his cellphone and marked off rocks to measure how far the water was creeping ashore.
“Now that we didn’t get blown off the planet, I’m concerned that
we’ll be flooded out,” Dowell told The Post.
Nearly 300,000 people lost power statewide by Saturday afternoon, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
In Corpus Christi, a city of 320,000, the streets were deserted. Officials asked those who had stayed behind to boil their tap water being using it.
President Trump, who signed a disaster proclamation Friday night to provide federal aid to the area, praised Federal Emergency Management Agency for its handling of the crisis.
“You are doing a great job — the world is watching!” Trump tweeted before writing in a second post that the White House was “closely monitoring” the cri- sis from Camp David.
“We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!” the president added in the second tweet.
New Yorkers helped as well. Gov. Cuomo deployed units of the New York National Guard and sent more than 100 airmen, three helicopters and several rescue boats to Texas to help with the recovery.
Harvey is the strongest hurricane to hit the United States since Wilma in 2005 and the most powerful to wallop the state since 1961. The storm is the first significant hurricane to strike Texas since Ike caused $22 billion in damage in September 2008.