Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast late Friday, unleashing torrents of rain and packing powerful winds, the first major storm to hit the US mainland in 12 years.
The storm made landfall in the small town of Rockport — near Corpus Christi, a major US oil industry hub. It was packing sustained winds of 130 miles per hour (215 kilometers per hour), a Category Four hurricane on the five-level storm scale.
A few hours later the storm made a second landfall just north of Rockport as a Category Three hurricane, with winds of 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center reported at 0600 GMT Saturday.
President Donald Trump granted Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s request to declare a “major disaster” zone in the state to speed federal aid to the millions in harm’s way.
The White House said that the president would head to the affected region early next week.
“We can obviously tell already at this stage this is going to be a very major disaster,” a somber Abbott said, as more than 1,000 National Guardsmen were activated to help with evacuation and recovery.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned of likely “catastrophic flooding” due to the massive rainfall forecast and the huge storm surge, which could reach 13 feet (nearly four meters) in some places.
Meteorologists warned that tornadoes were possible through Saturday from Texas into Louisiana, which is also expected to take a major hit.
The powerful storm has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and crippled oil production in the Gulf.
Rockport Mayor Patrick Rios had blunt words for those determined to stay, telling them to “mark their arm with a Sharpie pen, put their social security number” — to identify them if they were found dead.
Before the storm hit, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) prepositioned emergency supplies and authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders in many areas.
As he headed to the Camp David presidential retreat for the weekend with his family, Trump said: “Good luck to everybody.”
AFP
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