Dams overflow as Houston braced for more flood misery
● Fears that death toll may be hidden until flood waters begin to recede
A pair of reservoir dams that protect central Houston and a suburban levee began overflowing last night, adding to the rising floodwaters from Storm Harvey that have crippled the city after five days of rain.
Engineers began releasing water from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs on Monday to ease the strain on the 70-year-old dams, but the releases were not enough to relieve the pressure after one of the heaviest downpours in US history, the Army Corps of Engineers said.
US president Donald Trump and his wife Melania yesterday flew to Corpus Christi, where the storm first made landfall.
The president attended a briefing on the flooding soon after he landed. He said: “This storm, it’s epic what happened. But you know what, it happened in Texas and Texas can handle anything.”
Leaders in Louisiana offered yesterday to take in Harvey victims from Texas, while Houston officials are to open two to three more mega-shelters to accommodate people who continue to arrive at the overflowing George R Brown Convention Centre seeking refuge.
Both the Addicks and Barker reservoirs are at record levels and the release of water means more homes and streets will flood, with some homes inundated for up to a month, said Jeff Lindner of Harris County Flood Control District. The county is trying to determine where the water will go, Mr Lindner added.
Meanwhile, Brazoria County authorities posted a message on Twitter warning that the levee at Columbia Lakes, south of Houston, had been breached and telling people to leave the area.
Authorities said residents had been warned that the levee would overflow at some point and a mandatory evacuation order was given on Sunday.
More than 17,000 people are seeking refuge in Texas shelters, the American Red Cross said, and the number looks certain to grow.
Calls for rescue have so overwhelmed emergency teams that they have had little time to search for bodies, and officials acknowledge that fatalities could soar once the floodwaters start to recede from one of America’s most sprawling metropolitan centres.
More than four days after the storm ravaged the Texas coasta line as a Category 4 hurricane, authorities had confirmed only three deaths – including a woman killed when heavy rains dislodged a tree on to her trailer home in the small town of Porter. However, reports last night said that at least nine people had died in the disaster.
“We know in these kinds of events that, sadly, the death toll goes up, historically,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said. “I’m really worried about how many bodies we’re going to find.”
One Houston woman said she presumes six members of family, including four of her grandchildren, died after their van sank into Greens Bayou in East Houston.
Virginia Saldivar said her brother-in-law was driving the van when a strong current took the vehicle off a bridge and into the bayou.
The driver got out and urged the children to escape through the back door, Ms Saldivar said, but they could not.
“I’m just hoping we find the bodies,” she added.
A spokeswoman for a Houston hotel said one of its employees disappeared while helping about 100 guests and workers evacuate.
The disaster is unfolding on an epic scale, with the United States’ fourth-largest city mostly paralysed by the storm that parked itself over the Gulf Coast.
With nearly 2ft more of rain expected on top of the 30in that has fallen so far in some places, authorities worried the worst might be yet to come.
Meanwhile, nearly 6,000 inmates displaced by flooding have been moved from prisons in the Houston area to other facilities across Texas.