Storm could produce more flooding
HOUSTON—A week after it slammed into Texas, Harvey retained enough rain-making power Friday to raise the risk of flooding as far north as Indiana. In Houston, officials tried to safeguard parts of their devastated city by intentionally flooding others.
The mayor announced plans to release water from two reservoirs that could keep as many as 20,000 homes flooded for up to 15 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 while others awaited evacuation flights.
Residents of the still-flooded western part of Houston were told to evacuate ahead of the planned release from two reservoirs protecting downtown. The move was expected to flood homes that were inundated 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 it had to continue releasing water 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 high-water 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.
Turner also asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide more workers to process applications from thousands of people seeking government help. Harvey victims expect FEMA to work “with the greatest degree of urgency,” he told CBS “This Morning” for a segment broadcast Friday.
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. By Friday evening, Harvey had dumped more than 9 inches of rain in parts of Arkansas and Tennessee and more than 8 inches in spots in Alabama and Kentucky. 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. The state opened a seventh shelter Friday in Shreveport for up to 2,400 people, said Shauna Sanford, a spokeswoman for Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards.
The Texas city of Beaumont, home to almost 120,000 people near the Louisiana state line, was trying to bring in enough bottled water for people who stayed behind after a water pumping station was overwhelmed by the swollen Neches River.
One Houston-area man returned to his flooded house to discover a 9-foot alligator inside, KTRK-TV reported Friday. It took four men to carry away the reptile, whose mouth was taped shut.
Authorities raised the death toll from the storm to 39 late Thursday, while rescue workers conducted a block-by-block search of tens of thousands of Houston homes.
The latest statewide damage surveys showed the extent of destruction.
An estimated 156,000 dwellings in Harris County, or more than 10 percent of all structures in the county database, were damaged by flooding, according to the flood control district for the county, which includes Houston.
Lindner called that a conservative estimate.
Figures from the Texas Department of Public Safety indicated that nearly 87,000 homes had major or minor damage and at least 6,800 were destroyed.
Gov. Greg Abbott warned Friday in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” that it could take years for Texas to “dig out from this catastrophe.” President Donald Trump tweeted that there’s still “so much to do” in Texas’ recovery.
Aerial video broadcast on Friday showed another fire at a Houston-area chemical plant that lost power after Harvey. Flames and smoke could be seen coming from the Arkema plant in Crosby, the same facility where a container of organic peroxides exploded and caught fire Thursday. Floodwaters engulfed the plant’s backup generators and knocked out the refrigeration necessary to keep the compounds from degrading and catching fire, the company said.
In Beaumont, people waited Friday in a line of cars that stretched more than a mile at a water-distribution center at a high school football field. Each vehicle received one case. Earlier, people stood in line at a Kroger grocery store that was giving away gallon jugs of water, which were gone in two hours.
The water supply for the Bolivar Peninsula southeast of Houston was expected to run out within days, and could be out for weeks, after a pumping station 30 miles away was submerged by floodwater, officials said.
About 2,000 people live yearround on the 27-mile-long peninsula, a narrow strip of land in the Gulf of Mexico.
People fleeing the flooding were being bused to the Beaumont airport where airplanes and helicopters waited to fly them to Dallas and elsewhere. Air ambulances were on standby for those with critical medical needs.
About 1,800 people were staying in shelters in Dallas, including about 1,000 who were flown late Thursday from Beaumont, officials said. Most were taken to the Hutchison Convention Center in downtown Dallas, but others went to smaller shelters in the area.