Harvey toll rises to 60 – hero hailed

THE DEATH toll from Hurricane Harvey rose to 60 on Monday, as Houston police officers honored a comrade who died trying to combat the storm.

The body of Sgt. Steve Perez, a 60-year-old father of two, was transported to a funeral home, draped in an American flag and escorted by a group of his fellow officers.

Perez was one of the first confirmed casualties of the hurricane, after he drove into work during the predawn hours on Aug. 27 and drowned in a flooded underpass.

He has since been joined by dozens of others, as rains from Harvey continued to cause chaos in eastern Texas — even after it lost its hurricane-force winds.

Many of those deaths were drownings, though officials have also included victims from other forms of the storm’s devastation, such as trees falling on homes in Montgomery County, Tex., and outages cutting power to medical equipment the elderly and sick needed.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency reported Monday that more than 53,000 people displaced by the storm are now in government-funded hotel rooms, in addition to more than 4,000 in shelters in Houston.

FEMA granted Texas emergency loans Monday to help cities maintain normal operations. More than 450,000 people are expected to seek some form of relief from Harvey, according to FEMA estimates.