Hurricane Harvey hits Texas

International Desk: 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.

As many as 6 million people were believed to be in Harvey's path, as is the heart of America's oil refining operations. The storm's impact on refineries has already pushed up gasoline prices while the US Environmental Protection Agency lifted some rules on gasoline to reduce shortages.

The hurricane made landfall northeast of Corpus Christi around 10pm local time (1pm Saturday AEST) with maximum winds of 209 km per hour.

Even after it was downgraded to Category 3, the storm is expected to move slowly over the Texas and Louisiana coasts for days. There are forecasts for storm surges of up to 4 metres and over 90 cm of rain.

The town of Rockport appeared to be one of the hardest hit by Harvey's punch, hours after the mayor told anyone staying to write their names on their arms for identification in case of death or injury.

"We're suggesting if people are going to stay here, mark their arm with a Sharpie pen with their name and Social Security number," mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios said. "We hate to talk about things like that. It's not something we like to do but it's the reality. People don't listen."

A high school, hotel, senior housing complex and other buildings suffered structural damage, according to emergency officials and local media. Some were being used as shelters.

"Right now we're still hunkered down and can't go anywhere," said Steve Sims, the volunteer fire chief in Rockport. "We've heard rumours of 1,000 different things, we can't confirm anything because we haven't seen anything. We know we've got a lot of problems, but we don't know what yet."

Sims said power, internet and most cell phone service was out in the town of 10,000 where about two-thirds of people evacuated. Most of the senior citizens and nursing homes were among the first to be evacuated, he said.

Fuelled by the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Harvey became the first Category 4 hurricane to wallop the United States since Charley in 2004 and the first to hit Texas since Carla in 1961.

About 45 km from Corpus Christi and moving northwest, Harvey caused scattered power outages both on the coast near Galveston and 160 km inland.

Donald Trump, facing the first large-scale natural disaster of his presidency, said on Twitter he signed a disaster proclamation which "unleashes the full force of government help" shortly before Harvey made landfall.

While thousands fled the expected devastating flooding and destruction, many residents defied mandatory evacuation orders and stocked up on food, fuel and sandbags, drawing the ire of local authorities.

As a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Harvey could uproot trees, destroy homes and disrupt utilities for days.

In Corpus Christi, a city of 320,000 under voluntary evacuation, strengthening winds buffeted the few trucks and cars that continued to circulate on the streets. The storm toppled wooden roadwork signs and littered the streets with pieces of palm trees as white caps rocked sailboats in their docks.

About 137 km north in Victoria, Mayor Paul Polasek told CNN he estimated that 60 per cent to 65 per cent of the town's 65,000 residents defied the mandatory evacuation order.

Jose Rengel, a 47-year-old who works in construction, said he was one of the few people in Jamaica Beach in Galveston that did not heed a voluntary evacuation order.

"All the shops are empty," he said as the sky turned black and rain fell. "It's like a tornado went in and swept everything up."

With the hurricane lashing the Texas coast, at least three cruise ships operated by Carnival Corp with thousands of passengers aboard were forced to change their plans to sail for the Port of Galveston.

Two of them headed New Orleans to pick up fresh supplies, while the third delayed its departure from Cozumel, Mexico.

Louisiana and Texas declared states of disaster, authorizing the use of state resources to prepare.

The NHC's latest tracking model shows the storm sitting southwest of Houston for more than a day, giving the nation's fourth most populous city a double dose of rain and wind.

The city warned residents of flooding from close to 60 cm of rain over several days.

But Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner advised residents not to leave en masse, saying "no evacuation orders have been issued for the city." Chaotic traffic from a rushed evacuation in 2005 with Hurricane Rita proved tragic. "Calm and care!" he said in a tweet.

Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/Aug 26, 2017/Amirul