Tropical storm Harvey is set to dump more rain on Houston on Monday, worsening flooding that has paralysed the country’s fourth-largest city, forced thousands to flee to surrounding counties and swelled rivers to levels not seen in centuries.
Harvey, the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, first hit land late on Friday and has killed at least two people. It has since stayed around Texas' Gulf of Mexico Coast, where it is forecast to remain for several more days, drenching parts of the region with a year's worth of rain in the span of a week.
Schools, airports and office buildings in Houston were ordered shut on Monday as scores of roads turned into rivers and chest-high water filled neighborhoods in the low-lying city that is home to about 2.3 million people.
Torrential rain also hit areas more than 150 miles (240 km) away, swelling rivers upstream and causing a surge that was heading toward the Houston area, where numerous bayous have already been breached.
Trump Signs the Disaster Proclamation to Extend Government Help
While thousands fled the expected devastating flooding and destruction, many residents defied mandatory evacuation orders and stocked up on food, fuel and sandbags.
“We’re suggesting if people are going to stay here, mark their arm with a Sharpie pen with their name and Social Security number,” Rockport Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios told reporters on Friday, according to media reports. “We hate to talk about things like that. It’s not something we like to do but it’s the reality. People don’t listen.”
As many as 5.8 million people were believed to be in the storm’s path, as well as the heart of America’s oil refining operations. The storm’s impact on refineries has already pushed up gasoline prices.
As a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Harvey could uproot trees, destroy homes and disrupt utilities for days. It is the first major hurricane, of Category 3 or more, to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Wilma struck Florida in 2005.
Donald Trump, facing the first large-scale natural disaster of his Presidency, said on Twitter he signed a disaster proclamation which “unleashes the full force of government help” shortly before Harvey made landfall.
‘Hurricane Harvey Much Less Damaging Than Katrina, Sandy’
Damages from Harvey, the hurricane and tropical storm ravaging Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast, are estimated to be well below those from major storms that have hit New Orleans and New York, according to Hannover Re on Monday.
Hannover Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurers, said that insured losses for Katrina in 2005 were around $80 billion, while losses from Sandy in 2012 were $36 billion.
“We are far from Katrina and Sandy in magnitude in the case of Hurricane Harvey,” a spokeswoman for the company said. Insured losses for Harvey are so far estimated at less than 3 billion, a person with knowledge of an early market estimate said on Monday.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
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