It is catastrophic flood in Texas
rockport, united states — Tropical Storm Harvey lashed central Texas with torrential rains on Sunday, unleashing “catastrophic” floods after the megastorm — the most powerful to hit the United States since 2005 — left a deadly trail of devastation along the Gulf Coast.
The storm has caused at least two deaths since making landfall late Friday as a Category Four hurricane, pummeling the town of Rockport outside Corpus Christi with sustained winds of 215km per hour, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
One person was killed when their house caught fire in the Rockport area, local officials said.
And in Houston, a woman drowned when she left her car which had stalled in high water, local media reported citing police.
“Cannot emphasize enough how much flooding there is on roadways you are endangering yourself and our first responders by being out,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo wrote on Twitter.
Harvey slowly weakened as it advanced, ripping off roofs, flipping mobile homes, and leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the dark on the Gulf Coast, home to some of the country’s most important oil refineries.
The National Weather Service issued more than a dozen tornado warnings overnight for southeast Texas, including several in the
Cannot emphasize enough how much flood there is on roadways you are endangering yourself.” Houston Police Chief
Houston area. Forecasts show Harvey hovering over the shore for the next days, dumping dangerous amounts of rain.
In Houston, a city of 2.3 million, the city streets turned into fast moving rivers with officials warning residents to stay home.
Hobby International, one of the city’s two airports, announced that all flights were canceled “due to standing water on runways,” while George Bush International was operating at limited capacity.
“Catastrophic and life-threatening flash flood ongoing!” the NWS said on Twitter. “This is an extremely dangerous situation! Do not travel unless told to.”
“Catastrophic life threatening flooding ongoing across se Texas,” it later emphasized.
Houston officials said that their 911 phone system was overwhelmed with emergency calls, mostly from stranded motorists.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at least 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain had fallen in some areas — with another 20 or 30 inches possible. “Our primary concerns
We are leaving nothing to chance. City, state and Federal govs. working great together!” President Donald Trump
remains dramatic flooding,” he told reporters.
The governor visited a shelter for coastal evacuees in the state capital Austin and handed out food, describing the damage to homes and property as “sheer tragedy”.
“Some of them had their homes mowed down. Some of them will not have a place to return to... It is our job to make sure they will be taken care of,” he said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said there should be no illusions about the long-term impact.
“This is going to be an unprecedented long and frustrating event for the state of Texas,” FEMA director Brock Long told MSNBC.
“The recovery from this disaster is going to be years.”
Emergency services were struggling to make headway as the rains continued to pour down, although the Coast Guard managed to airlift at least 20 people and a dog to safety.
President Donald Trump, aware of the damage to George W. Bush presidency’s for his tardy response to Hurricane Katrina, said he was closely monitoring relief efforts
Catastrophic flash flood ongoing. this is an dangerous situation! do not travel unless told to.” The NWS
from Camp David in Maryland.
“We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!” he tweeted after a teleconference meeting with his cabinet to discuss the emergency operations. He will visit Texas next week. In Rockport, a local school and airport were among the places to suffer major damage while homes were also burnt to the ground as power cables caught fire. There were similar scenes in Houston and Corpus Christi.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. We do have strong winds — we’re right next to the bay — but nothing like last night,” Corpus Christi store owner Brandon Gonzalez told reporters.
Brian McNoldy, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami, said a strong ridge of high pressure was preventing the storm from dispersing. “There’s no sign of it really moving in a foreseeable future,” he told reporters. Coastal Texas is a fast-growing area, with some 1.5 million people moving into the region since 1999.—