RESCUERS BATTLING TO REACH STRANDED RESIDENTS
RESCUE teams in boats, trucks and helicopters scrambled yesterday to reach hundreds of Texans marooned on flooded streets in and around the city of Houston before monster storm Harvey returns.
US President Donald Trump promised the government would be on hand to help Texas along the “long and difficult road to recovery” from the historic storm.
The medical examiner’s office for Harris County, which includes the city of Houston, confirmed six deaths since Sunday “potentially tied to Hurricane Harvey”. Three people were previously known to have died as a result of the storm.
A Houston woman said that she presumed six members of a family, including four of her grandchildren, died after their van sank into Greens Bayou in East Houston.
Virginia Saldivar said her brother-in-law, Samuel Saldivar, was driving the van across a bridge when a strong current in the floodwaters swept it away. Mr Saldivar was able to climb out of a window and urged the children, siblings aged 6 to 16, to escape through the back door, but they could not.
Houston emergency officials say they cannot confirm the deaths.
Officials also warned that the danger has not yet passed, with more families still stranded or packed into emergency shelters and the tropical storm once more gathering strength on the Gulf coast.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said more than 8000 people had been brought, soaking and desperate, to shelters in America’s fourth largest city.
The 911 emergency line has received more than 75,000 calls, but city officials urged residents facing life-threatening storm water floods to remain on the line and trust that help will come.
The US Army Corps of Engineers began to open the Addicks and Barker dams to prevent a catastrophe on the outskirts of Houston.