Hurricane Harvey grows, nears Texas

HOUSTON » Harvey intensified into a hurricane Thursday and steered for the Texas coast with the potential for up to 3 feet of rain, 125 mph winds and 12-foot storm surges in what could be the fiercest hurricane to hit the United States in almost a dozen years.

Forecasters called Harvey a “life-threatening storm” posing a “grave risk.” Millions of people braced for a prolonged battering that could swamp dozens of counties more than 100 miles inland.

Landfall was predicted late today or early Saturday between Port O’Connor and Matagorda Bay.

Harvey grew quickly Thursday from a tropical depression into a Category 1 hurricane. Fueled by warm Gulf waters, it was projected to become a major Category 3 hurricane. The last storm of that category to hit the U. S. was Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 in Florida.

Superstorm Sandy, which pummeled New York and New Jersey in 2012, never had the high winds and had lost trop- ical status by the time it struck. But it was devastating without formally being called a major hurricane.

All seven Texas counties on the coast from Corpus Christi to the western end of Galveston Island have ordered mandatory evacuations of tens of thousands of residents from all low-lying areas. In four of those counties, officials ordered their entire county evacuated and warned those who stayed behind that no one could be guaranteed rescue.

Voluntary evacuations were urged for Corpus Christi itself and for the Bolivar Peninsula, a sand spit near Galveston where many homes were washed away by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike in 2008.

Harvey’s effect would be broad. The hurricane center said storm surges as much as 3 feet could be expected as far north as Morgan City, Louisiana, some 400 miles away from the anticipated landfall.

Once it comes ashore, the storm is expected to stall, dumping copious amounts of rain for days in areas like flood-prone Houston, the nation’s fourth most-populous city, and San Antonio.