Hurricane Harvey 2017 weaker now inland; ‘catastrophic’ flooding threat continues

The storm blew onto shore as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, bringing with it destructive 130 miles per hour winds and the potential for severe flooding. Harvey isn’t going to make it much farther inland.

Update at 11:15 a.m.: Hurricane Harvey continued weakening Saturday morning and was on the verge of becoming a tropical storm, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

It is now charging towards the USA and gaining power as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico. “We do know there are damages occurring, but this is just the beginning”.

Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast on Friday as a Category 4 storm, bringing life-threatening winds and the likelihood of catastrophic flooding as the most powerful storm in over a decade hit the mainland United States.

President Donald Trump, facing the first large-scale natural disaster of his presidency, granted Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s request to declare a “major disaster” zone in the state to speed federal aid to the millions in harm’s way. Even after weakening, the system might spin out into the Gulf and regain strength before hitting Houston a second time Wednesday as a tropical storm, forecasters said.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials are encouraging residents to pay heed to the directions from the local and state officials.

Hurricanes nearly always lose strength quickly after making landfall and moving away from the warm waters that fuel their winds, Blake said.

In 1900, a large part of Galveston, Texas was reduced rubble and almost 10,000 people were killed in the deadliest hurricane to ever hit the United States.

The top elected official in Harris County says the main threat to the area is not Hurricane Harvey’s winds but rain and flooding. “We really pray that people are listening to their emergency managers and get out of harm’s way”.

All seven Texas counties on the coast from Corpus Christi to the western end of Galveston Island have ordered mandatory evacuations from low-lying areas.

With more than 300,000 people losing access to power, the total rainfall in the affected areas is predicted to reach a total of between two to three feet.

But the worst-case scenario, which one of the best models is predicting, is for Harvey to make landfall, dump rain on Texas for a few days, then go back out into the Gulf of Mexico, intensify, and make landfall again in Louisiana.