Houston drying out, but long recovery remains
Hundreds of thousands of buildings have been damaged or destroyed
Houston began to dry out Friday, sprouting hopeful signs such as open roads, the restoration of electricity, the beginning of mail distribution through pickup locations and even the return of Astros baseball on Saturday.
Despite the small steps toward a return to normal life, the recovery from the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history, with damage estimated at $190 billion, is expected to take years. Hurricane Harvey killed at least 46 people, damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes and spiked gas prices by shutting refineries.
President Donald Trump is preparing to ask Congress for $5.95 billion in emergency spending for Texas and Louisiana. “We’re working on emergency funding,” Trump told reporters Friday.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner urged residents with flooded homes Friday not to return home because the Army Corps of Engineers will be releasing water from Addicks Reservoir. High water levels could remain for two weeks in homes south of Interstate 10, west of Gessner and east of the reservoirs.
Firefighters continued Friday to search homes block by block for survivors or bodies.
Harvey flooded an estimated 136,000 structures in Harris County, or 10 percent of all structures in the county database, according to the flood-control district. The Texas Department of Public Safety says Harvey has heavily damaged or destroyed more than 55,000 homes.
More than 440,000 people had applied for federal disaster assistance by Friday, with $79 million paid out by that point, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. More than 37,000 people were in emergency shelters by Thursday, after 8,000 families had moved to 9,000 hotel rooms.
Most major roads reopened in Houston for the Labor Day weekend. Outside the city, roads remain swamped in Sugar Land to the southwest and Beaumont to the east. Interstate 10, the main route to Beaumont and Louisiana remains blocked with patches of high water east of Houston.
CenterPoint Energy had restored power to 842,000 people, but 12,500 customers without power remain inaccessible because of high water.
Port Houston partially resumed operations Friday by opening container terminals and truck roads even as shipping remains limited.
Union Pacific Railroad began restoring freight service to Houston.