Harvey’s terror spreads to the Deep South
Flooding strikes Kentucky, Tennessee as Alabama hit by apparent tornado
MEMPHIS, TENN.— Harvey spread its misery into the Deep South as flooded creeks drove people from their homes in Tennessee and Kentucky and an apparent tornado damaged homes and toppled trees in a rural area of northwest Alabama.
More than 50 people were forced to leave a Nashville neighbourhood because of flooding from Harvey, but no deaths or injuries have been reported, according to a statement Friday morning from the Nashville Office of Emergency Management.
The agency said remnants from Harvey dumped nearly 23 centimetres of rain in some areas over a 24-hour period and crews responded to dozens of calls overnight requesting aid. About 40 people took refuge in a Red Cross shelter set up at a church.
By Friday morning, most streams in the Nashville area were returning to normal levels, emergency officials said.
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.
The water was receding at a flooded Houston-area chemical plant where highly unstable compounds blew up after losing refrigeration, with a fire and thick black smoke billowing into the air Friday evening, company officials said.
Flames and smoke could be seen coming from the Arkema plant in Crosby for a second day after a container of organic peroxides exploded and caught fire early Thursday, sending acrid smoke into the air. An executive had said up to eight more containers could burn and explode.
Arkema says Harvey’s floodwaters engulfed its backup generators and knocked out the refrigeration necessary to keep the compounds from degrading and catching fire.
The Environmental Protection Agency and local officials said an analysis of the smoke that came from the plant early Thursday showed no reason for alarm. No serious injuries were reported. Still, authorities evacuated an area around the plant.
Emergency crews continued to maintain a 2.4-kilometre buffer around the plant that was established earlier this week when Arke- ma Inc. warned that chemicals kept there could explode. While billowing black smoke poured out of the Crosby plant Friday, Arkema spokesperson Janet Smith reiterated statements execu- tives made earlier in the day that the remaining containers of organic peroxides would explode and that the safest course of action is to simply “let these fires happen and let them burn out.”
The Canadian government and the governments of Ontario and Quebec are readying relief supplies, including baby formula and cribs, for victims of hurricane Harvey.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the governments are working with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate the help.
“We reached out to offer whatever support is needed, from airlift capacity to helicopters to whatever is necessary,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference Friday in Saskatoon.
FEMA, he said, responded by providing Goodale a list of badly needed provisions, and Canada was more than happy to oblige.
Goodale said the relief supplies include hygiene kits, bed pillows, bath towels, baby formula, baby disposable bottles, baby cribs and baby linens.
The Royal Canadian Air Force is preparing a cargo plane to fly the goods to Texas and it is expected to leave soon.
Near Monteagle, northeast of Chattanooga in south-central Tennessee, Interstate 24 was shut down in both directions Friday after high winds knocked down power lines across the highway. Traffic was backed up for kilometres.
Meanwhile, more than two dozen people were evacuated from homes Friday in the small south Kentucky town of Guthrie. Mayor Scott Marshall said authorities used boats to rescue people from eight to 10 homes. Some evacuees had health issues, including one man who was on kidney dialysis.
Marshall said it’s the most significant flooding in the town of about 1,400 people since the late 1960s. Seven inches of rain had fallen in Guthrie as of Friday at 11a.m., the National Weather Service reported.
The rains also flooded low-lying streets in Memphis.