RAIN OF TERROR
Houston drowns as Harvey’s deluge stretches through week
Joe Garcia and his dog Heidi are rescued from rising Texas flood waters, but continued rain from Tropical Storm Harvey means no relief is in sight.
Wide swaths of southeast Texas have been devastated by Tropical Storm Harvey, with some areas drowning in nearly 40 inches of water — and Lone Star State residents are bracing for another beating with up to 20 inches of rain.
“This is, if not the largest, it has to be categorized as one of the largest disasters America has ever faced,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared at a press conference Monday afternoon.
Forecasters say Harvey, which made landfall in Texas as a Category 4 hurricane on Friday night, will move slowly back to the northeast throughout the week and drench some parts of the state with another 15 to 20 inches of rainfall by the end of Thursday.
Areas west of Houston could see as much as 50 inches of rain by the time the storm is over — which would be the largest recorded total in Texas history.
By Monday, more than 2,000 people in Houston had been plucked from the catastrophic flooding, which left roads, homes and cars across Texas submerged.
Abbott activated the entire Texas National Guard — about 12,000 members.
Citizen rescuers also jumped in to help fellow residents, using private motor boats and even kayaks to ferry stranded people to safety as thousands poured into shelters around the state.
With waters continuing to rise, some people panicked as they waited for rescue.
“They’re making it difficult for us to rescue them,” said Clyde Cain, a member of a Louisianabased volunteer rescue group dubbed the Cajun Navy. “You have people rushing the boat. Everyone wants to get in at the same time. They’re panicking. Water is rising.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it expected to see at least 30,000 people show up at shelters by the time the slow-moving storm ends.
“It is imperative that we do ev- erything possible to protect the lives and safety of people across the state of Texas as we continue to face the aftermath of this storm,” Gov. Abbott said.
Joe Garcia, wearing a Mets hat, fled his flooded home in Spring, Texas, with his German shepherd, Heidi, in tow, wading through chest-deep water until he was rescued by a boat.
But others were not so lucky, with the storm’s death toll rising to at least eight.
A family of six is believed to have been killed when their van was swept away by floodwaters Sunday afternoon as they tried to escape the storm.
Four children — Daisy Saldivar, 6; Xavier Saldivar, 8; Dominic Saldivar, 14; Devy Saldivar, 16 — were in the white van, along with their great-grandparents, Manuel Saldivar, 84, and his wife, Belia, 81.
Officials hadn’t confirmed their deaths, but Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said he was “really worried about how many bodies we’re going to find.”
One woman was killed near Houston when an oak tree toppled onto her mobile home Monday afternoon while she was napping inside. Porter Fire Department firefighters had to evacuate her husband and remove her body from the home. In other storm-related news:
President Trump is scheduled
to touch down in Corpus Christi, Texas, at noon Tuesday to survey the flood damage with his wife, Melania. “Protecting the lives of our people is my highest priority,” he said at a press conference Monday. “Every asset at my command is at the disposal of local officials.”
Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, who live in Houston, were riding out the storm at the family’s home in Maine, but said Monday that “our hearts are in Houston.” “We are praying for all of our fellow Houstonians and Texans affected by Harvey, and truly inspired by the flotilla of volunteers — Points of Light all — who are answering the call to help their neighbors,” the former first couple said in a statement, echoing a term made famous by the ex-president.
The Army Corps of Engineers warned that flooding in some areas could get worse as it releases water from two Houston-area dams. “If we don’t begin releasing now, the volume of uncontrolled water around the dams will be higher and have a greater impact on the surrounding communities,” said Col. Lars Zetterstrom, commander of the corps’ Galveston District.
Officials said all 350 patients at Ben Taub Hospital, a busy trauma center in Houston, would have to be evacuated after its basement was flooded. The floodwaters also forced one of the world’s most fa- mous cancer institutes, MD Anderson Cancer Center, to cancel all appointments and surgeries.
More than 5,500 people have streamed into Houston’s largest evacuation shelter, the George R. Brown Convention Center — straining its maximum capacity of 5,000 people, American Red Cross spokesman Lloyd Ziel told The Associated Press. Some may have to sleep on the floor or in chairs if volunteers can’t find more cots.
Meanwhile, FEMA Administrator Brock Long said he expects about 450,000 people will file for disaster relief, adding that the agency will “be here for several years helping you guys recover.”
Former FEMA Director Michael Brown — who ran the George W. Bush administration’s botched rescue efforts in Hurricane Katrina — said Harvey would be worse than the devastating 2005 storm.
Brown predicted that the flooding in densely populated Houston, the country’s fourth-largest city, would bring unprecedented suffering and damage.
“There are several factors that make it worse than Katrina. For one, there is the scope of the flooding. Harris County and the surrounding areas are so saturated,” he told the Houston Chronicle. “Also, the amount of damages will continue to grow. There will be mold and structural damages adding up.”