HURRICANE HARVEY: MASSIVE CLEAN UP BEGINS, 50 KILLED
HOUSTON: Rescue workers are desperately searching flooded neighbourhoods across Texas for survivors stranded by Hurricane Harvey, one of the most destructive storms in American history that claimed at least 50 lives.
More than 185,000 homes were damaged and 9,000 destroyed as 42,000 people remain in shelters amid overflowing rivers and reservoirs, Texas officials said.
Harvey wrecked water pumping stations in the city of Beaumont, about 100 miles east of Houston, leaving residents and hospitals without clean water.
Many remain trapped by debris and waist-high murk that carries a risk of disease. Amidst all this, death toll has reached 50, Houston Chronicle quoted local officials as saying.
Houston’s two main airports
have resumed limited service and traffic has begun trundling through dry, sunny streets, giving a sense of normality. But some 37,000 homes in the region were still without power, about half the number from Thursday, said mayor Sylvester Turner. He urged conventions and visitors to come.
Turner said the US army corps of engineers needed to release water in reservoirs to create capacity lest more rain come and bring fresh disaster. He reiterated that people should not stay in their homes if they had water. Texas governor Greg Abbott said the recovery process would be long and arduous.