Recovery: Beaumont struggles to restore drinking water. »
HOUSTON» A Texas city that lost its drinking water system to Harvey struggled Saturday to restore service, and firefighters kept monitoring a crippled chemical plant that has twice been the scene of explosions and fires since the storm roared ashore and stalled over Texas more than a week ago.
Officials in Beaumont, population almost 120,000, worked to repair their water treatment plant, which failed after the swollen Neches River inundated the main intake system and backup pumps failed. The Army Corps of Engineers sent pumps, and an Exxonmobil team built and installed a temporary intake pipe in an effort to refill a city reservoir. Exxon has a refinery and chemical plants in Beaumont.
On Friday, people waited in a line that stretched for more than a mile to get bottled water.
In Crosby, outside of Houston, authorities continued to monitor the Arkema plant where three trailers of highly unstable compounds ignited in recent days, sending thick black smoke and tall flames into the air. A Harris County fire marshal spokeswoman said there were no active fires at the facility, but six more trailers were being watched.
The soggy and battered city of Houston began burying its dead and taking steps toward the long recovery ahead. The school district said up to 12,000 students would be sent to different schools because of flood-damaged buildings. Harvey flooding is believed to have damaged at least 156,000 dwellings in Harris County, which includes the nation’s fourth-largest city.
The storm is blamed for at least 44 deaths. Also, fire officials in the community of New Waverly, about 55 miles north of Houston, said a 6-month-old baby was missing and presumed dead after being ripped out of its parents’ arms and swept away by floodwaters when the family fled their pickup truck last Sunday, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Not everyone was able to think about rebuilding yet.
About 200 people waved signs and shouted as they rallied Saturday outside a still-flooded subdivision in the west Houston suburb of Katy, demanding answers about when they will be able to return home. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has warned residents that their homes could remain flooded for up to 15 days because of ongoing releases of water from two reservoirs protecting downtown. Turner on Saturday ordered mandatory evacuations for an area that’s been inundated by water from the reservoirs. About 4,7000 dwellings are in the area, and Turner said about 300 people have refused to leave.
The city said the releases are necessary to preserve the reservoirs’ structural integrity, but many at the rally said their homes were being sacrificed to save others.