Thousands rescued as Harvey flooding proceeds to guzzle Houston neighborhoods

HOUSTON — Rain pelted this battered city anew Monday as emergency teams — aided by a growing contingent of citizen-rescuers — plunged into waist-deep water seeking people stranded by devastating, historic flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

As forecasters warned of more rain, rising rivers and floodwaters that would guzzle extra streets and neighborhoods, police described a vast rescue effort underway. About Two,000 people had been brought to safety with more still in need of help. Yet even with several deaths attributed to the storm, the total toll of Harvey’s destruction remained unclear in Houston and across Texas and Louisiana, with officials warning that the flooding would remain and telling more than 30,000 people would be coerced from their homes.

“We are not out of the forest yet,” Elaine Duke, the acting Homeland Security secretary, said during a Monday morning briefing in Washington. “Harvey is still a dangerous and historic storm.”

In Photos: Hurricane Harvey

Fears also grew beyond Texas, where the floodwater pounding this city and others was measured in feet, not inches. President Trump on Monday announced “emergency conditions” in Louisiana, where forecasts have called for as much as two feet of rainfall in some areas.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) had asked Trump for an emergency disaster declaration, similar to one signed for Texas last week, telling that Harvey posed a “serious danger to life and property” in the state, which is just a year eliminated from a massive flood disaster. A flash flood see was issued Monday morning for part of the state as well as part of Mississippi.

The instantaneous concentrate for many remained Houston, the country’s fourth-largest city and a sprawling metropolitan area, which faced dire circumstances and National Weather Service forecasts warning of more powerful rainfall.

Two reservoirs were opened to release water to relieve the stress the downpour has caused in the region, which has seen as much rain in a few days as it averages in an entire year.

“We are watching catastrophic flooding, and this will likely expand and it will likely persist as it’s slow to recede,” Louis W. Uccellini, the NWS director, said at the Monday morning briefing.

Parts of Harris County, which encompasses Houston, were pelted with thirty inches of rain in the past seventy two hours, the Weather Service reported early Monday.

The Weather Service said Harvey’s rain is causing “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding over large portions of southeastern Texas,” and it warned of more agony to come, estimating that Harvey could produce up to an extra twenty five inches of rainfall through Friday along the upper Texas coast and part of Louisiana. Some areas in Texas could see as much as fifty inches of rain in total, forecasters said.

“We have not seen an event like this,” William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Monday morning at a news briefing. “You could not draw this forecast up. You could not desire this forecast up.”

Authorities in Texas fielded scores of calls for help across the night from people stranded by water, albeit many areas had imposed curfew overnight Sunday in hopes of cutting down on the number in need of being rescued from vehicles. Help was pouring in from swift-water rescue teams from around the country.

The Houston police dispatched officers on boats that were sent through streets where the floodwater reached the pumps at gas stations. While urging residents to stay off the roads, police have asked people with high-water vehicles and boats to assist in rescue efforts.

In Houston, the fire department responded to more Four,000 water-related calls for service. Police rescued Two,000 people in the city, and another one hundred eighty five critical rescue requests were still pending, Art Acevedo, the Houston police chief, said at a news briefing Monday.

“The purpose is rescue,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at the briefing. “That’s the major concentrate for the day.”

Acevedo also disputed social media claims suggesting that looting had erupted in the city, telling that police had arrested four people for attempting to loot.

Across Houston and suburbs many miles away, families scrambled to get out of fast-flooding homes. Rescuers, in many cases neighbors rescuing one another, used fishing boats, enormous dump trucks and front-end loaders to battled driving rains.

In downtown Houston, some of the floodwater had receded. The engorged Brays Bayou had gone down several feet overnight, while some streets that had been flooded were dry as the sun rose over Houston.

Abandoned cars were left in intersections and alongside roads, and in one case, a school bus had been parked on a high grassy area and left behind. A brief respite overnight had given way to people wandering the streets in the morning, looking at the scattered debris. A woman wearing hospital scrubs, knee-high rubber boots and a backpack, carrying an umbrella, trekked through the water toward a hospital.

But by midmorning Monday, a hard rain had begun to fall again.

The shelter at the M.O. Campbell Center in North Houston had begun turning people away Sunday evening, leaving hundreds stranded, according to local emergency officials.

All day, local fire departments, the Army Reserves and good Samaritans had brought people from their flooded homes to a fire station before transporting them to the M.O. Campbell shelter. But when it reached capacity, the shelter’s doors were shut, and at least three hundred people were stranded at the fire station.

The firefighters put a call out for help, asking if anyone could take the evacuees in. One local youth pastor answered the call. The rescue teams picked up Pastor David McDougle, 26, and his wifey from their flooded home so they could open the Very first Baptist Church North Houston as a makeshift shelter for those stranded.

McDougle said he got a call Sunday evening asking if he would let evacuees sleep at the church, so he and his wifey took all the food and water they had gotten and brought it to the church.

However they now have a roof over their goes, the church is not a designated shelter and has no food or water for the evacuees. The church reached capacity with almost three hundred people laying on the floor of the gym, and the food supply ran out around five a.m. People are jumpy to drink tap water. The restrooms at the church will not flush, creating a mess of the place.

“It’s frustrating, but I’m just relying on God to fulfill his promises to us,” McDougle said. “We’re all pleading.”

The Brazos Sea, which runs southwest of Houston, is expected to reach record heights in the coming days. National Weather Service models demonstrated the sea rising to fifty nine feet by Tuesday, topping the previous record of 54.7 feet.

Early Monday morning, the Fort Arch Office of Emergency Management issued voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders for broad areas along dozens of miles of Brazos Sea banks. Sea banks are expected to overflow across that part of the state as trillions of gallons of rainfall runoff consolidates over coming days.

“A 59-foot sea level menaces to over top many of the levees in out area,” said Fort County Judge Robert Hebert. “It exceeds the design specifications of our levees.”

Herbert said anyone who overlooks mandatory evacuation orders — issued for an area that includes a part of Houston with sprawling mansions — will not be aided by very first responders when the waters rise.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday activated the entire Texas National Guard in response to the storm, pushing the total deployment to 12,000, his office said.

“It is imperative that we do everything possible to protect the lives and safety of people across the state of Texas as we proceed to face the aftermath of this storm,” Abbott said in a statement.

On Monday, the Pentagon said that active duty units were heading to staging areas in anticipation of a formal request for help, telling national guard units from across the country had readied cargo jets, Black Hawk helicopters and others to help with the response. In addition, a Pentagon search and rescue team was deploying to Fort Worth, Tex., to help, according to spokesman U.S. Army Col. Robert Manning.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said federal agencies have more than Five,000 employees working in Texas, and the White House said Trump plans to visit parts of the state on Tuesday.

The devastation that evoked Hurricane Katrina in Fresh Orleans was also reverberating around the world from the Houston area’s large international community. In India, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj posted a tweet Monday telling two hundred Indian students were “marooned.”

“They are surrounded by neck deep water,” she wrote.

Officials said Houston, a major center for the nation’s energy industry, had suffered billions of dollars in harm and would take years to fully recover. Oil and gas companies have shut down about a quarter of their production in the Gulf of Mexico. Spot prices for gasoline are expected to hop on Monday, but the total extent of harm will not be clear for days, companies and experts said.

Harvey’s sheer size also became apparent Sunday as strenuous rains and flooding were reported as far away as Austin and even Dallas. What commenced with a direct influence on the little coastal town of Rockport on Friday night turned into a weather disaster affecting thousands of square miles and millions of people — with no clear end in look.

The Texas National Guard has deployed across the state, including engineers in Corpus Christi and an infantry search-and-rescue team in Rockport. Another search-and-rescue unit was staging in San Antonio and was likely to be deployed to affected areas shortly, officials said.

As the extent of the disaster became sharper, some criticized Houston officials for not calling for an evacuation of the city.

Turner had defended the decision not to evacuate, noting that it would be a “nightmare” to empty out the population of his city and the county all at once.

Trump has praised the way officials were treating the flood, and he signed a disaster proclamation for Texas on Friday night after Abbott made a dire request warning that the storm would be deadly and lead to billions in damages.

Both of Houston’s major airports were closed, and many tourists and visitors found themselves stranded in hotels with no hope of leaving anytime soon. While Houston was spared Harvey’s initial onslaught, disaster abruptly beset the city, as severe storms Saturday evening gave way to flooding Sunday morning.

The Weather Service said Sunday that at least five people had been reported dead because of Harvey. Local officials have confirmed that at least three people have died as a result of the storm, and officials in the hardest-hit counties expect that as the waters recede the number of fatalities will rise.

As it scrambled to open shelters across Texas, the Crimson Cross directive center in Houston was “physically isolated” because of floodwaters, said Paul Carden, district director of Crimson Cross activities in South Texas, which includes Corpus Christi.

“The advice is, if you don’t have to be out, don’t be out,” said Bill Begley, a spokesman with the Joint Information Center in Houston. He said most of the calls for help the center had received had come from residents who attempted to drive through the storm and got stuck in high water.

In some cases, people could not wait. Early Monday morning, a man came running into the lobby of the Marriott Courtyard hotel in Southwest Houston. He said he had a pregnant woman in his truck who was about to produce.

Crystal Manker, the hotel’s operations manager, was shocked enough that anyone made it to the hotel, which had been surrounded by deep, impassable floodwaters and abandoned, submerged cars since the night before. Nobody had gotten in or out for twenty four hours. But hotel staff went with the man through the swamped parking lot, and eventually into waist-deep water where his truck had stalled, with a pregnant woman and her spouse inwards.

The man said he had seen the husband’s desperate call on Twitter that his wifey was in labor and they couldn’t get out of their home. It was close by, so he and a friend drove through the deep water and picked them up. They commenced toward Texas Children’s Hospital, but as they got closer to the overflowed Brays Bayou, the water became too deep to pass.

As their truck embarked stalling, witnessed the Courtyard, which is on the banks of the Bray, and ran inwards to get help. Manker said she called 911, and got through after ten minutes. She told the operator the woman’s contractions were eight minutes apart, and the operator told her to call back when they got closer.

At that point Manker said the baby seemed destined to be born in a hurricane-marooned Marriott, so she and her staff spinned a bed into a ground-floor meeting room. They hurried in with sheets, towels, water, pillows and scissors.

Manker remembered that three nurses from Louisiana had been relocated to the hotel. She called them and they rushed down — even tho’ none of them had ever delivered a baby.

As the mother-to-be lay in the bed in the meeting room for more than an hour, Manker called nine hundred eleven again and told the operator contractions were down to two minutes apart. The nurses were getting ready.

Then a phat city dump truck appeared. Several dudes helped the woman into the truck, which then headed off into the 4-foot deep water, across the swamped bridge across the bayou and toward the hospital.

Maker was still waiting for word Monday morning on how everything went. She was most amazed at the boys who answered the Twitter call for help.

Sullivan reported from Houston and Berman reported from Washington. Emily Wax-Thibodeaux in Katy, Tex.; Robert Samuels, Fred Barbash, Derek Hawkins, Brian Murphy, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Susan Hogan, Wesley Lowery and Steven Mufson in Washington; Annie Gowen in Fresh Delhi; Justin Glawe in Dallas; Brittney Martin, Stephanie Kuzydym and Dylan Baddour in Houston; Tim Craig in Rockport and Corpus Christi; Ashley Cusick in Fresh Orleans; Mary Lee Grant in Port Aransas, Tex.; and Sofia Sokolove in Austin contributed to this report.

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As forecasters warned of more rain, rising rivers and floodwaters that would guzzle extra streets and neighborhoods, police described a vast rescue effort underway. About Two,000 people had been brought to safety with more still in need of help. Yet even with several deaths attributed to the storm, the utter toll of Harvey’s destruction remained unclear in Houston and across Texas and Louisiana, with officials warning that the flooding would stay and telling more than 30,000 people would be coerced from their homes.

“We are not out of the forest yet,” Elaine Duke, the acting Homeland Security secretary, said during a Monday morning briefing in Washington. “Harvey is still a dangerous and historic storm.”

In Photos: Hurricane Harvey

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) had asked Trump for an emergency disaster declaration, similar to one signed for Texas last week, telling that Harvey posed a “serious danger to life and property” in the state, which is just a year liquidated from a massive flood disaster. A flash flood witness was issued Monday morning for part of the state as well as part of Mississippi.

Two reservoirs were opened to release water to relieve the stress the downpour has caused in the region, which has seen as much rain in a few days as it averages in an entire year.

“We are observing catastrophic flooding, and this will likely expand and it will likely persist as it’s slow to recede,” Louis W. Uccellini, the NWS director, said at the Monday morning briefing.

Parts of Harris County, which encompasses Houston, were pelted with thirty inches of rain in the past seventy two hours, the Weather Service reported early Monday.

“The objective is rescue,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at the briefing. “That’s the major concentrate for the day.”

Acevedo also disputed social media claims suggesting that looting had erupted in the city, telling that police had arrested four people for attempting to loot.

In downtown Houston, some of the floodwater had receded. The engorged Brays Bayou had gone down several feet overnight, while some streets that had been flooded were dry as the sun rose over Houston.

But by midmorning Monday, a hard rain had begun to fall again.

The shelter at the M.O. Campbell Center in North Houston had begun turning people away Sunday evening, leaving hundreds stranded, according to local emergency officials.

McDougle said he got a call Sunday evening asking if he would let evacuees sleep at the church, so he and his wifey took all the food and water they had gotten and brought it to the church.

Tho’ they now have a roof over their goes, the church is not a designated shelter and has no food or water for the evacuees. The church reached capacity with almost three hundred people laying on the floor of the gym, and the food supply ran out around five a.m. People are jumpy to drink tap water. The restrooms at the church will not flush, creating a mess of the place.

“It’s frustrating, but I’m just relying on God to fulfill his promises to us,” McDougle said. “We’re all begging.”

“A 59-foot sea level menaces to over top many of the levees in out area,” said Fort County Judge Robert Hebert. “It exceeds the design specifications of our levees.”

Herbert said anyone who disregards mandatory evacuation orders — issued for an area that includes a part of Houston with sprawling mansions — will not be aided by very first responders when the waters rise.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday activated the entire Texas National Guard in response to the storm, pushing the total deployment to 12,000, his office said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said federal agencies have more than Five,000 employees working in Texas, and the White House said Trump plans to visit parts of the state on Tuesday.

“They are surrounded by neck deep water,” she wrote.

Harvey’s sheer size also became apparent Sunday as mighty rains and flooding were reported as far away as Austin and even Dallas. What commenced with a direct influence on the lil’ coastal town of Rockport on Friday night turned into a weather disaster affecting thousands of square miles and millions of people — with no clear end in view.

As the extent of the disaster became sharper, some criticized Houston officials for not calling for an evacuation of the city.

Turner had defended the decision not to evacuate, noting that it would be a “nightmare” to empty out the population of his city and the county all at once.

Both of Houston’s major airports were closed, and many tourists and visitors found themselves stranded in hotels with no hope of leaving anytime soon. While Houston was spared Harvey’s initial onslaught, disaster all of a sudden beset the city, as severe storms Saturday evening gave way to flooding Sunday morning.

As it scrambled to open shelters across Texas, the Crimson Cross guideline center in Houston was “physically isolated” because of floodwaters, said Paul Carden, district director of Crimson Cross activities in South Texas, which includes Corpus Christi.

As their truck commenced stalling, witnessed the Courtyard, which is on the banks of the Bray, and ran inwards to get help. Manker said she called 911, and got through after ten minutes. She told the operator the woman’s contractions were eight minutes apart, and the operator told her to call back when they got closer.

At that point Manker said the baby seemed destined to be born in a hurricane-marooned Marriott, so she and her staff flipped a bed into a ground-floor meeting room. They hurried in with sheets, towels, water, pillows and scissors.

Manker remembered that three nurses from Louisiana had been relocated to the hotel. She called them and they rushed down — even however none of them had ever delivered a baby.

Then a massive city dump truck appeared. Several fellows helped the woman into the truck, which then headed off into the 4-foot deep water, across the swamped bridge across the bayou and toward the hospital.