HOUSTON—Rising flood waters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground in Houston yesterday, overwhelming rescuers who fielded countless desperate calls for help.
A fleet of helicopters, air-boats and high-water vehicles confronted flooding so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas. Rescuers got too many calls to respond to each one and had to prioritise life-and-death situations.
The water rose high enough to begin filling second floors—a highly unusual sight for a city built on nearly flat terrain. Authorities urged people to get on top of their homes to avoid becoming trapped in attics and to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to their location.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez used Twitter to field calls for assistance. Among those seeking help was a woman who posted: “I have two children with me and the water is swallowing us up.”
People used inflatable beach toys, rubber rafts and even air mattresses to get through the rising waters to safety. Others simply waded while carrying plastic trash bags stuffed with their belongings.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said authorities had received more than 2,000 calls for help and would be opening the city’s main convention centre as a shelter.
Rainfall of more than four inches per hour resulted in water levels higher than in any recent floods and higher than during Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, said Jeff Linder of flood control district in Harris County, which includes Houston.
The Coast Guard, which received more than 300 requests for help, deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans.
The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, said the government expected to conduct a “mass care mission” and predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require FEMA’s involvement for years.
The fiercest hurricane to hit the US in more than a decade came ashore late Friday about 48 kilometres north-east of Corpus Christi as a mammoth Category 4 storm with 209 kph winds.
It weakened Saturday to a tropical storm and by yesterday the system was centred about 65 miles south-east of San Antonio, with maximum sustained winds of about 72.42 kph, according to the National Hurricane Center, which described the flooding as “catastrophic.”
One person was killed in Aransas County when in a fire at home during the storm. Another person—a woman who tried to get out of her vehicle in high water—died in flooding in Harris County, where Houston is located, though authorities had not confirmed a cause of death, said Gary Norman, a spokesman for the Houston emergency operations centre. (AP)
