The remnants of Tropical Storm Harvey yesterday drenched northern Louisiana as it moved inland, leaving behind record flooding that paralyzed the US energy hub of Houston, killed at least 35 people and drove tens of thousands from their homes.
Two explosions were reported at a flood-hit chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, 48km northeast of Houston, with one sheriff’s deputy sent to the hospital after inhaling toxic chemicals.
The Arkema SA plant had lost power as a result of the storm, causing the organic peroxides stored on site to warm to combustible levels. The company urged people to stay away from the area, warning that further blasts were likely.
Photo: AP / Chris Granger / NOLA.com The Times-Picayune
The death toll was rising as bodies were found in receding waters. About 32,000 people were forced into shelters around the region since the storm came ashore on Friday last week near Rockport, Texas, as the most powerful hurricane to hit the state in a half-century.
By yesterday, the storm was downgraded to a tropical depression. Maximum sustained winds were 48kph at 4am, when Harvey was about 24km south of Monroe, Louisiana.
The storm’s rains wrought the most damage along the Gulf Coast and the US National Weather Service said that as much as 25.4cm could fall in parts of Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky.
The Houston Fire Department yesterday was to begin a block-by-block effort to rescue stranded survivors and recover bodies, Assistant Fire Chief Richard Mann told reporters.
Nearly 76.2cm of rain hit the area around Port Arthur, Texas, the US National Weather Service said.
“Our whole city is underwater,” said Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Foreman in a social media post where he also broadcast live video of floodwaters filling his home in the city of 55,000 people.
Beaumont, near Port Arthur, said it had lost its water supply due to flood damage to its main pumping station. Residents in the city of about 120,000 were to lose water pressure from yesterday morning.
Fort Bend County yesterday ordered a mandatory evacuation for areas near the Barker Reservoir, which was threatening to flood.
Clear skies in Houston on Wednesday brought relief after five days of catastrophic downpours. The first flight out of Houston since the storm hit boarded on Wednesday evening.
Police in Houston’s Harris County said 17 people remained missing.
Nearly 200,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana and Texas were without power yesterday, utilities said.
Flooding shut the nation’s largest oil refinery in Port Arthur in the latest hit to US energy infrastructure that has sent gasoline prices climbing and disrupted global fuel supplies.
Moody’s Analytics estimates that the economic cost from Harvey for southeast Texas is US$51 billion to US$75 billion, ranking it among the costliest storms in US history.
At least US$23 billion-worth of property has been affected by flooding from Harvey just in parts of Texas’ Harris and Galveston counties, a Reuters analysis showed.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that floodwaters would linger for up to a week, adding that the area affected is larger than that hit by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and 2012’s Hurricane Sandy.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday pledged to stand by the people of Texas and Louisiana.
US Vice President Mike Pence and several Cabinet secretaries were to travel to Texas yesterday to meet residents affected by the storm as well as local and state officials, his press secretary said.
An army of volunteers has turned out to help the thousands of police, National Guard personnel, Coast Guard flood teams and emergency crews to ferry thousands of people stranded in floodwaters to safety.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia