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Harvey pummels Texas with 'catastrophic', 'unprecedented' flooding — here's what you need to know
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast on Friday night, with winds topping 130 mph. As of Monday morning, it was a tropical storm with winds up to 40 mph.
Dangerous flooding is expected for days, with as much as 50 inches of rain forecasted in and around Houston.
Five deaths have already been reported, and officials expect the toll to rise. Tens of thousands of people could be driven to shelters.
Texans on Monday morning were about halfway through the worst of Hurricane Harvey's rains, and as the storm moves back out onto the Gulf of Mexico, they braced for even more devastating flooding in much of the southeast section of the state.
Houston has already received more than two feet of rain, turning many roads into rivers as the city of 2.3 million people prepares for another two feet to fall in the coming days.
Harvey arrived on the shores of Texas as a hurricane Friday night, packing sustained wind speeds as high as 130 mph. As of Monday morning, it was classified a tropical storm with maximum winds of 40 mph, and it has parked itself over the southeastern half of the state.
Thousands of residents, many in the towns of Port Aransas, Port O'Connor, and Corpus Christi, where the hurricane first made landfall, evacuated their homes, and five deaths have so far been reported. Tens of thousands could be driven into shelters, and hundreds of thousands could seek some sort of disaster assistance, officials said.
"This is a landmark event for Texas," FEMA Administrator Brock Long said. "Texas has never seen an event like this."
The rain hasn't stopped, and forecasters don't expect it to let up until at least Tuesday, with total rainfall reaching 15 to 25 inches across much of Texas by Tuesday, reaching up to 50 inches in isolated areas.
The storm is moving at 3 mph, crawling its way across the southeast flank of the state, leaving flooding and destruction in its wake. At 7 a.m. CDT on Monday, the center of the storm was sitting in Matagorda Bay.
The National Hurricane Center is still warning of "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding," and the National Weather Service called the rainfall event "unprecedented."
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This event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced. Follow orders from officials to ensure safety. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/IjpWLey1h8
"There is an unusual amount of moisture available to this storm, and it is large and powerful, so rainfall records could topple," Jeff Masters, a meteorologist at The Weather Company who cofounded the weather-data website Weather Underground, told Business Insider.
The storm surge, the quick rise in water caused by a hurricane's strong winds, on the Texas coast crested several feet at the height of the storm. On Monday morning, Port Aransas to Galveston Bay were under a one- to three-foot storm surge warning.
Tornadoes are also threatening to strike the Texas Gulf Coast into southern Louisiana, as the storm churned up strong winds.
Forecasters predict Harvey will go back out over the Gulf, pick up more moisture, then make its way back across eastern Texas and up to Louisiana, wreaking havoc for the rest of the week.
'Widespread devastation'
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Harvey's one-two punch of devastating hurricane-force winds and storm surge on the Gulf Coast, coupled with its landmark flooding inland, combined to make it an unprecedented event for the state of Texas.
So far, five deaths from Harvey have been confirmed, and officials expect more deaths to be confirmed in the coming days. Long said in a press conference on Monday morning that officials are still focusing on rescue and recovery, and will have to wait until the storm passes to fully evaluate the damage.
On Saturday and Sunday, accounts of destruction in the areas hit hardest by Harvey were starting to emerge. The AP estimated the storm knocked out power for about 300,000 residents.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Sunday that almost 6,000 people called emergency services to be rescued, and police and firefighters had saved over 1,000, plucking many from rooftops using aircraft, dump trucks, and boats, the AP reported.
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Astounding video shows numerous boats maneuvering around stranded vehicles on flooded street in Dickinson, Texas. https://t.co/YGP3fEVW8t pic.twitter.com/LHM5SbVftF
The coastal city of Rockport, Texas, seems to have sustained extreme damage. Cell service is out in the area, and residents have been told it is not safe to return for the time being (a mandatory evacuation was put in place there). Rockport Mayor Charles Wax told CNN that "there's been widespread devastation."
As the storm approached on Friday, Rockport Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios requested that people who chose not to evacuate write their names and social security numbers on their arms, in case rescuers later need to identify them.
Port Aransas, Texas was also impacted heavily. Mayor Charles Bujan told KIII TV that there are likely a few fatalities there, but a number cannot be confirmed. The city's Pioneer Trailer Park, he said, suffered a "100% loss."
Strong winds, flooding, and debris on roadways have kept emergency crews from reaching of many areas, so comprehensive surveys of the damaged areas have yet to be completed. And in many areas, it's still raining.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Masters estimated on Thursday that Harvey could cause $10 billion in damage, but more recent estimates are much higher. The last major hurricane to hit the Texas Gulf Coast was Ike, a Category 4 storm that caused $38 billion in damage in 2008.
Why hurricane categories don't tell the full story
REUTERS/Nick Oxford
Hal Needham, a hurricane scientist at Louisiana State University, wrote in a blog post on the weather site WXshift that a storm's category doesn't fully convey how dangerous rainfall could be and how much damage it could cause.
"Hurricanes and tropical storms throw three hazards at us: wind, rainfall, and storm surge," he wrote. "Think of the impacts separately. Storms with weaker winds are more likely to stall and dump heavier rainfall. This shocks people, as it would seem intuitive that a Category 5 hurricane would tend to dump more rain than a Category 1 hurricane. But the opposite is true."
While strong winds can rip shingles off roofs and tear down power lines, flooding often causes more widespread, costlier damage — and can be more dangerous for humans. Needham said that the scale used to distinguish a hurricane from a tropical storm was based solely on maximum sustained wind but that "storms are too complex to define by one number."
Ana Pelisson/Business Insider
How Texas prepared
Hurricane Harvey is Trump's "first serious" crisis from a natural disaster.
The White House said in a statement on Friday afternoon that the president is closely monitoring the storm, and Trump has continued to tweet updates on the response throughout the weekend. He said Sunday morning that he would visit Texas as soon as he could "without causing disruption," and the White House announced Sunday evening that Trump would arrive in the state on Tuesday.
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Many people are now saying that this is the worst storm/hurricane they have ever seen. Good news is that we have great talent on the ground.
Before the hurricane hit, many areas — including Rockport and Port Aransas — issued mandatory evacuation orders. The Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority began busing evacuees to San Antonio on Thursday.
Houston didn't issue an evacuation order. Masters recommended only evacuating if local emergency experts say to do so, since many of the deaths during Hurricane Rita in 2005 were because of the evacuation.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster on Wednesday for 30 counties in Harvey's path, added 20 more counties to that declaration on Saturday, and added another four counties on Sunday, freeing up state money and resources to respond to the storm. He issued a federal disaster declaration in 19 counties, which Trump approved. Trump has approved emergency disaster declarations in both Texas and Louisiana, directing federal aid toward the affected areas.
Abbott told The New York Times that his government was preparing to assist up to 41,000 evacuees. On Sunday afternoon, he also activated 3,000 National Guard and State Guard members to aid in evacuation, search, and rescue.
REUTERS/Adrees Latif
The American Red Cross opened pop-up shelters throughout San Antonio, and the San Antonio Current reported that 6,000 beds were ready by Friday morning.
The Health and Human Services Department said it was deploying assets to Texas and Louisiana ahead of Harvey's landfall, moving six Disaster Medical Assistance Teams to the Dallas area, and Incident Response Coordination Teams to support medical personnel in both states.
FEMA said it deployed over 1 million meals, 1 million liters of water, and 1,800 staff members for the storm response.
In addition to giving money to the Red Cross's Harvey fund, FEMA administrator Long recommended people donate to an organization found on the site www.nvoad.org to help those affected by the storm.
NOW WATCH: Pilots flew straight into Hurricane Harvey and caught this incredible first-hand footage
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