- Two deaths reported, several injured in Texas
- NHC warns "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding"
- Trump plans to visit the storm zone
- Updated at 13:50 BJT: Second fatality from Hurricane Harvey was reported. A woman died when she drove her vehicle into high water, according to the police. The victim got out of her vehicle and was overtaken by water and drowned.
Damage left behind by a tornado that spun off of Hurricane Harvey after the storm made landfall on the Texas Gulf coast, in Katy, Texas on August 26, 2017. /Reuters Photo
- Updated at 9:11 BJT: At least one death was reported in Texas on Saturday as Hurricane Harvey, the most powerful storm to hit the US since 2005, struck the coast.
The first fatality was reported in the city of Rockport, where the person died in a house fire during the storm, Aransas County Judge Burt Mills said Saturday afternoon.
At least a dozen people were injured, Mills said.
According to AP, at least 18 people have been rescued from vessels in distress by US Coast Guard helicopters.
Residents, who lost their homes to Hurricane Harvey, say goodbye as they prepare to relocate from the safety of a school in Rockport, Texas, U.S. August 26, 2017. /Reuters Photo
Texas utility companies, meanwhile, said nearly a quarter of a million customers were without power, amid reports of downed power lines and trees.
Harvey hit Texas late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 209 kph and was downgraded to a tropical storm, with sustained winds of 113 kph.
However, the US National Hurricane Center has still warned that Texas will be hit by "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" as the storm is expected to lash Texas for days.
President Donald Trump tweeted early Saturday that he's "closely monitoring" Harvey from Camp David, Maryland.
Trump, who plans to visit the storm zone next week, has signed a disaster declaration for Texas.
Twitter Photo
The White House said that President Trump held a video conference from Camp David in which he instructed the relevant departments and agencies to “stay fully engaged and positioned to support his number one priority of saving lives.”
Major hurricanes in US history
- The Galveston Hurricane in 1900 was the deadliest hurricane in the history of the US, killing at least 8,000 people.
- The Okeechobee Hurricane in 1928 caused at least 2,500 casualties.
- Hurricane Katrina in 2005 killed about 1,500 people. The storm caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas.
