At least 2 dead, hundreds rescued from flooding as Harvey hammers southeast Texas, creating ‘extremely dangerous’ situation

Though Hurricane Harvey weakened to a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon, southeast Texas — particularly the Houston area — continued to be hammered by the storm on Sunday morning.

One person died in flooding in Houston, the city’s police chief, Art Acevedo, confirmed late Saturday. It’s the second confirmed death from Harvey.

“Sadly we have lost one female member of our community who encountered floodwaters in her vehicle, got out and was swept away,” Acevedo said. “We also have reports of one other brutality but have not confirmed it.”

More than 1,000 people were also rescued overnight from the treacherous flooding in the Houston area, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported.

On Sunday morning, the NWS announced flash flood emergency situations for 12 counties in southeast Texas. At 4:39 a.m., an NWS bulletin said, “rainfall amounts in the last 24 hours of 14 to 28 inches has fallen in portions of the emergency area.”

The bulletin continued, “This is a flash flood emergency from the Bay City area to Wharton to Waller across the Houston Metro area to Stafford to Friendswood to League City and Santa Fe. Travel across the area is severely hampered if not impossible. Over 1,000 high water rescues have been performed and in some places emergency crews cannot reach the worst hit areas.”

The NWS urged residents Sunday morning, “Move to higher ground now. This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”

Emergency services in Houston are being pushed to the limit. The city tweeted, “911 services at capacity. If u can shelter in place do so, a few inches in your home is not imminent danger. Only call if in imminent danger.”

At a press conference Saturday night, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said, “It’s a serious storm. It’s going to last four or five days — and today is day one.” He urged residents to refrain from driving.

“Heavy rain band stalled over city for several hours, get off the roadways now,” Acevedo tweeted Saturday night. “Use extreme caution flooding is widespread on roads.”

And those who did not heed the aforementioned warning found themselves stranded. “In the last 10 mins we have gotten several calls of people stranded on the roads,” Turner tweeted Saturday night. “Please help us keep you safe and help 1st responders.”