Hurricane Harvey made a second landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border in the U.S. on Wednesday, dousing the region with heavy rain that could lead to “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding”. Hunter expects flood damage alone from the storm to cost at least $35 billion, about what Katrina cost. At home, we saw water in our street rise more than a foot in little more than an hour, and still continue to rise, creeping inside our garage and peaking at a depth of 16 inches.
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“We are a very resilient people down here. We really have to see how long it takes before the import and export channels can flow again”.
People in those areas and near them have complained for years that the premiums are too high – though they would be much higher still if not subsidized by the federal government. “That’s going to be our biggest need”.
The National Hurricane Center says Harvey is back on land after coming ashore early Wednesday just west of Cameron, Louisiana. After 48 hours at work with only six hours sleep, we weren’t going to refuse the invitation.
The service said evacuations are still ongoing and first responders are working hard to get people to safety.
Houston-area waterways flooded by Harvey’s rainfall have crested, Harris County flood control official Jeff Linder told Reuters.
City officials were preparing to temporarily house some 19,000 people, with thousands more expected to flee.
“The continued increase in flooding creates high uncertainty on the amount of damage that US refineries will incur, the pace at which the shutdown will reverse and the magnitude of capacity that will be impaired over the next few months”, Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note.
In an apparent response to scattered reports of looting, the mayor also imposed a curfew.
Sandra Bullock is the latest celebrity to lend aid to the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
Minter said if the refiners can get back on line, they still need transportation channels to operate normally so they can distribute the product.
Analysts are predicting the economic cost of Harvey could reach $75bn (£38bn) in southeast Texas alone.
“We want to be looked at in five years, in 10 years from now as, this is the way to do it”, he said.
AAA says gas prices could increase from 5 to 25-cents per gallon over the next several days. The program is the only provider of flood insurance in most areas.
But low-lying New Orleans was still girding for the storm, which made landfall a day after the 12-year anniversary of Katrina, which ravaged the vulnerable city which is famous for its jazz and cuisine.
Houston police confirmed that a 60-year-old officer drowned in his patrol auto after he became trapped in high water while driving to work.
From her home in a northeast Houston suburb, Anike Allen has seen many of her neighbors being airlifted as she slowly runs out of food. “It was a no-brainer”, said Dallas police Senior Cpl.
Ruben Jordan, a retired high school football coach died when he was helping rescue people trapped in high water, the Clear Creek Independent School District said. Officials in Houston were still unable to determine the extent of the tragedy. Four volunteer rescuers also went missing after their boat was swept in a fast-moving current, local media reported.
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Harvey, which made its first landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Friday night near Corpus Christi, made the second landfall, slamming into the Louisiana coast near the Texas border. Medina is west of San Antonio. The rain levels also come close to the all-time USA rainfall record from a tropical cyclone, which was 52 inches in Hawaii from Hurricane Hiki in 1950.
