Trump will visit Texas – and possibly Louisiana – on Tuesday after declaring a federal state of emergency in both states, a move that triggers the release of emergency government funding and other assistance..
“My administration is co-ordinating closely with state and local authorities in Texas and Louisiana to save lives, and we thank our first responders and all of those involved in their efforts,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
Forecasters could only draw on a few comparisons to the storm, recalling Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and killed 1,800 people in 2005.
The administration of then-President George W. Bush faced accusations that his response was slow and inadequate – criticism that dealt a serious blow to his presidency.
Flood damage in Texas from Hurricane Harvey may equal that from Katrina, one of the costliest natural disaster in US history, an insurance research group said on Sunday.
In Texas, thousands of National Guard troops, police officers, rescue workers and civilians raced in helicopters, boats and high-water trucks to rescue the thousands stranded in the flooding, which turned streets into rivers and caused chest-high water build-ups in scores of neighbourhoods.
The last Category 4 hurricane to make landfall in Texas since Harvey was Carla in 1961. It packed winds and rains that destroyed about 1,900 homes and nearly 1,000 businesses, the National Weather Service said.
The centre of Harvey is likely to remain just off the coast of Texas through Tuesday night before moving inland over the northwestern Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.
Among the most recent fatalities from Harvey was a family of two adults and four children who were believed to have drowned after the van they were in was swept away by floodwaters in Houston, authorities said.
A man drowned on Monday night trying to swim across flooded Houston-area roads, the Houston Chronicle reported the Montgomery County Constable’s Office as saying.
Since coming ashore, Harvey has virtually stalled along the Texas coast, picking up warm water from the Gulf of Mexico and dumping torrential rain from San Antonio to Louisiana.
The Houston metro area has suffered some of the worst precipitation with certain areas expected to receive more than 127cm of rain in a week, more than it typically receives for a year.
Harvey is expected to produce up to 30cm of rain through Thursday over parts of the upper Texas coast into southwestern Louisiana, the National Weather Service said.
Schools and office buildings were closed throughout the Houston metropolitan area, where 6.8 million people live.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency director, Brock Long, estimated that 30,000 people would eventually be housed temporarily in shelters.
Houston and Dallas have set up shelters in convention centres and Austin was preparing to house as many as 7,000 evacuees.
Hundreds of Houston-area roads were blocked by high water. The city’s two main airports were shut as the floods turned runways into ponds and more than a quarter million customers were without power as of Tuesday morning.
Source: Harvey kills nine, Trump to visit Texas | Perth Now
