- President Donald Trump lands in Corpus Christi, Texas
- More than 17,000 evacuees are at Texas shelters, Red Cross says
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'Get out now': Levee breaches south of Houston
Reunion: Son lost everything, but finding dad made it all OK
'Get out now!' Levee breaches south of Houston as flooding intensifies
Story highlights
Houston (CNN)The
catastrophic flooding that has already swallowed thousands of homes in
Texas could get worse after a levee breached south of Houston.
"Get out now!" Brazoria County officials tweeted Tuesday.
The levee breached after inland waterways rapidly swelled to major flood stage, county spokeswoman Sharon Trower said.
"The
Brazos River is being pounded, and all of that water is coming down
from the tributaries and creeks into the river," she said. "All the
roads around us are flooded. We don't have any evacuation routes to tell
people to take."
Brazoria
County sits between the Gulf of Mexico and Houston, which remains the
site of Harvey's most appalling devastation. Houston police have rescued
more than 3,500 people from the floodwaters, Police Chief Art Acevedo
said.
That
number is almost certain to keep rising, as countless residents remain
trapped in their deluged homes three days after Hurricane Harvey struck.
"Every passing hour, more boats are getting into the water," Acevedo said Tuesday. "This is a catastrophic event."
Four people have died from the calamitous storm, and with another landfall expected, the devastation could intensify.
Latest developments
--
President Donald Trump landed in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday to
meet with local officials and relief organizations. He will also visit
Austin but will not visit the most hard-hit parts of Texas because "the
President wants to be very cautious about making sure that any activity
doesn't disrupt the recovery efforts that are still ongoing," White
House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
--
Several rain gauges southeast of downtown Houston report more than 48
inches of rain from the storm known as Harvey. That marks the most rain
ever recorded in the contiguous United States from a tropical storm that
made landfall. The previous record was held by Tropical Storm Amelia,
which hit Texas in 1978.
--
Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center is hosting nearly 10,000
evacuees, about double the number of cots available. Those who couldn't
get a cot were given pillows and blankets to sleep on the floor, Red
Cross spokeswoman Betsy Robertson said. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner
said city officials were looking for more shelter space.
--
Houston officials will not ask for immigration status or documentation
from anyone at any shelter, according to tweets in English and Spanish
from the city's verified account.
-- Dallas opened a mega-shelter at its downtown convention center.
More wrath to come
As
Tropical Storm Harvey hovered over the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, it
threatened to dump an additional 15 inches of rain on southwestern
Louisiana and southeastern Texas, including the inundated Houston area.
And
the water won't stop rising anytime soon. Harvey could bring more
"catastrophic and life-threatening" flooding before making landfall
again Wednesday morning near the Texas-Louisiana border, according to
the CNN Weather Center.
Swollen
rivers in east Texas aren't expected to crest until later this week.
Federal officials are already predicting the deadly storm will drive
30,000 people into shelters and spur 450,000 people to seek some sort of
disaster assistance.
Stuck in a wheelchair as the water rose
People
have turned to the walkie-talkie app Zello to report their dire
circumstances. Among them were an elderly couple trapped on a roof and a
family caught in the maelstrom with three children, including one in
the throes of a seizure and another with autism.
Confined to a wheelchair as the water rose, Karen Preston watched as Harvey's flood took over her home.
Coast Guard rescuers on water scooters plucked her from the flood and to safety -- but without her wheelchair.
"I can't walk. I just had surgery on my knee," Preston said. "Right now, I'm in so much pain."
She
found herself Tuesday taking shelter at Houston's convention center.
Many have no idea whether their homes have been destroyed.
"How do you go from here?" Preston said, choking back tears. "Where do you start? Where?"
Entire Texas National Guard activated
Thousands
of calls for help have gone out across Houston, and state, local and
military rescue units have plucked thousands of stranded residents from
the water and deluged homes.
"None of us (is) going to give up," Acevedo said.
The
Pentagon is identifying resources, including trucks, aircraft and
troops, that can be dispatched for hurricane relief if the request
comes, defense officials said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated the
entire Texas National Guard, roughly 12,000 Guardsmen, he said Monday.
In
Harris County, home to Houston, authorities asked stranded people to
hang sheets or towels from their homes so rescuers could spot them more
easily.
The scope of how many people are trapped in flooded homes remains unclear.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said she believes the number of trapped residents across Houston could be "tens of thousands."
Strangers come to help
Volunteers with boats jumped in to help authorities in search-and-rescue efforts.
FEMA
Administrator Brock Long encouraged more citizens to volunteer, saying
recovery efforts would require community involvement. The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster website can direct people to religious and nongovernmental agencies that are helping people in at least 30 counties, he said.
But as water levels have risen, so has the desperation.
In
one instance, people started to panic, rushing rescue boats and even
shooting at them if they didn't stop, one volunteer rescuer said.
Clyde
Cain of the Cajun Navy, a Louisiana-based rescue force that gained fame
during Hurricane Katrina, said that after one of his team's boats broke
down, people tried to steal the inoperable watercraft while the crew
sought shelter in a delivery truck,
"They're
making it difficult for us to rescue them," he said. "You have people
rushing the boat. Everyone wants to get in at the same time. They're
panicking. Water is rising."
Jim
McIngvale, who owns furniture stores in Houston and Richmond, also
pitched in. He opened his doors to evacuees Sunday and gave 600 people a
place to sleep.
"We have tons of
mattresses in our warehouse, and we can provide them with a blanket," he
told CNN. "We have a restaurant inside the stores, and we are feeding
them for free."
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