Hurricane Harvey among costliest, deadliest in US history

“We have two guys working on four units a day, making them livable”.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said it expected the storm’s center to remain inland over Florida and then move into Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee where heavy rain and possible flash floods will be a major concern.

So the race is on to get even more money to fuel FEMA as Irma approaches the USA and with Hurricane Jose expected to become a major hurricane by Friday.

Price said the main hospital in St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands was closed after being damaged by Irma, and critically ill patients were being evacuated to Puerto Rico or other islands.

The crew drove down from Austin and immediately got to work – basically rebuilding the units from the studs up – so hurricane survivors could return home or help other displaced Houston residents find new housing after their own homes or apartments were destroyed. “The situation is beginning to look up, with many refineries either back online or in the process of coming back online resulting in gasoline production ramping back up”, DeHaan wrote.

The potential scale of the disasters has some anxious that there won’t be enough resources to go around.

In Texas, FEMA has established recovery commands, and has registered more than 600,000 people in support of individual assistance, said Long.

“We’re not going to let money get in the way of saving lives”, FEMA director Brock Long told broadcaster CBS on Wednesday. How is that different from disaster relief?

Hurricane Irma is raging but we have great teams of talented and fearless people already in place and ready to help.

Long warned people not to ignore evacuation orders. And the number of people, places and towns that need them could significantly grow after Irma has run its course. “It’s not like they can just throw a switch and start producing gas”.

“It’s not just about the federal government”, he says. However, there could be “varying impacts” in some states until forecasters have a better bead on the storm’s path. This is everybody’s responsibility as an American to pitch in.