Hurricane weakens after battering Texas
The most powerful hurricane to hit the US state of Texas in more than 50 years moved slowly inland yesterday, dumping torrential rain expected to cause catastrophic flooding after battering the coast with 130 miles per hour winds.
Texas utility companies said nearly a quarter of a million customers were without power. Residents and emergency respondents were still sheltering from the storm early on Saturday, making it difficult to gauge the full extent of the damage.
The town of Rockport, 30 miles (48 km) north of the city of Corpus Christi, appeared to be one of the hardest hit. Ahead of the storm's arrival, the city's mayor told anyone staying behind to write their names on their arms for identification purposes in case of death or injury.
The hurricane came ashore northeast of the city of Corpus Christi late on Friday with maximum winds of 130 miles per hour (209 km per hour). That made it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the second-highest category and the most powerful storm in over a decade to hit the mainland United States.
The storm weakened to Category 1 early yesterday and was expected to be downgraded to a tropical storm later in the day, the US National Hurricane Center said. Harvey was about 125 miles (201 km) southwest of Houston, moving at about six mph (10 km per hour), the center said.
Harvey was expected to linger for days over Texas and bring as much as 40 inches (101.6 cm) of rain to some parts of the state.
Harvey was the first major hurricane of Category 3 or more to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Wilma struck Florida in 2005.
Its size and strength also dredged up memories of Katrina, the 2005 hurricane that made a direct hit on New Orleans as a Category 3 storm, causing levees and flood walls to fail in dozens of places. About 1,800 died in the disaster made worse by a slow government emergency response.
Texas and Louisiana declared states of disaster before Harvey hit, authorizing the use of state resources to prepare.