ON EDGE IN TEXAS
Anxious residents brace for hurricane’s next wave — torrential rains
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS— Tropical storm Harvey spun deeper into Texas on Saturday and unloaded ponderous amounts of rain after the once-fearsome hurricane crashed into vulnerable homes and businesses along the coastline in a blow that killed at least one person and injured up to 14.
Throughout the region between Corpus Christi and Houston, many people feared that toll was only the beginning. Authorities did not know the full scope of damage because weather conditions prevented emergency crews from getting into the hardest-hit places. And they dreaded the destruction that was yet to come from a storm that could linger for days and unload more than 100 centimetres of rain on cities, including dangerously floodprone Houston, fourth largest in the U.S.
In the island community of Port Aransas, population 3,800, officials were unable to fully survey the town because of “massive” damage. Police and heavy equipment had only made it into the northernmost street.
“I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that’s about it,” said Mayor Charles Bujan, who had called for a mandatory evacuation but did not know how many heeded the order.
Catastrophic flooding is expected as Harvey slowly moves across Texas, stalling over the southeast and producing a “multi-day rainfall disaster” over the next five to six days, according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters are expecting 40 to 75 centimetres of rain and isolated amounts as high as a metre, said Michael Brennan, acting chief of the centre’s Hurricane Specialist Unit.
Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 that was directly in the storm’s path. The mayor said his community took a blow “right on the nose” that left “widespread devastation,” including homes, businesses and schools that were heavily damaged. Some structures were destroyed.
Rockport’s roads were a mess of toppled power poles. A trailer blocked much of one major intersection. Wood framing from ripped-apart houses was strewn along Route 35 on the town’s southern end. Relentless winds tore the metal sides off the high school gym and twisted the steel door frame of its auditorium.
“We’re still in the very infancy stage of getting this recovery started,” said an Aransas County spokesperson, Larry Sinclair. Mayor Charles Wax told the Weather Channel that the city’s emergency response system had been hampered by the loss of cellphone service and other forms of communication.
On Friday, Rockport mayor pro tem Patrick Rios offered ominous advice, telling the station that people who chose not to evacuate should mark their arm with a Sharpie pen, implying that the marks would make it easier for rescuers to identify them.
As many as 14 people suffered minor injuries, including slips and falls, scrapes and a broken leg, Aransas County Judge C.H. Mills said. The lone fatality confirmed so far was a person caught in a fire at home during the storm, Mills said.
About 300,000 customers were without power statewide. Gov. Greg Abbott said it would probably be several days before electricity is restored.
Meanwhile, the storm slowed to a crawl of only 3 km/h. Rainfall totals varied across the region, with Corpus Christi and Galveston receiving around 8 cm, Houston 18 cm and Aransas 25 cm. Tiny Austwell got 38 cm.
Elsewhere in the storm’s immediate aftermath, coast guard helicopters rescued 18 people from boats and barges in distress, said Capt. Tony Hahn, commander of the Corpus Christi sector.
The Corpus Christi port was closed with extensive damage.
Because the city is the third-largest petrochemical port in the U.S., the agency will be on the lookout for spills, Hahn said.
The fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade came ashore late Friday about 48 kilometres northeast of Corpus Christi as a mammoth Category 4 storm with 209 km/h winds.
Harvey weakened to a tropical storm by midday Saturday. At 6 p.m., its maximum sustained winds had fallen to about 96 km/h. The storm was centred about 115 km southeast of San Antonio, the National Hurricane Center said.
The hurricane posed the first major emergency management test of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
Trump met with his cabinet and other senior administration officials to discuss the federal response to the damage and flooding, the White House said Saturday.
The president held a video conference from Camp David in which he instructed relevant departments and agencies to “stay fully engaged and positioned to support his No.1 priority of saving lives,” the statement said.
Trump, who on Friday signed a federal disaster declaration for coastal counties, also reminded department heads that the full effect of the storm would not be apparent for days. On Twitter, he commended the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for his handling of the disaster. Fuelled by warm Gulf of Mexico waters, Harvey grew rapidly, accelerating from a Category 1 early Friday morning to a Category 4 by evening. Its transformation from an ordinary storm to a life-threatening behemoth took only 56 hours, an incredibly fast intensification.
Harvey was the strongest hurricane to strike Texas since 1961’s hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.
The storm’s approach sent tens of thousands of people fleeing inland. Families who escaped Rockport were worried about neighbours and whether their homes are still standing.