Harvey comes to Texas

Yahoo has an article about the hurricane:

Texas residents are fleeing inland as Hurricane Harvey takes aim at the Gulf Coast. Harvey is expected to be the most severe hurricane to make landfall in the United States since the 2005 devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. A dramatic storm surge is predicted to cause extensive flooding across the region. It will also mark the first time President Trump will be tasked with handling a natural disaster emergency response. Yahoo News will offer live updates through the weekend on the storm’s path, its impact and the emergency response. Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into the nation's fourth-largest city Sunday, as rising water chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground and overwhelmed rescuers, who could not keep up with the constant calls for help. The incessant rain covered much of Houston, Texas in turbid, gray-green water and turned streets into rivers navigable only by boat. In a rescue effort that recalled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, helicopters landed near flooded freeways, airboats buzzed across submerged neighborhoods, and high-water vehicles plowed through water-logged intersections. Some people managed with kayaks or canoes, or swam.
Volunteers joined emergency teams to pull people from their homes or from the water, which was high enough in places to gush into second floors. The flooding from Harvey, which made landfall late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane and has lingered, dropping heavy rain as a tropical storm, was so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas. They urged people to get on top of their houses to avoid becoming trapped in attics and to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to their location.
Residents living around the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, designed to help prevent flooding in downtown Houston, were warned Sunday that a controlled release from both reservoirs would cause additional street flooding and could spill into homes. Rising water levels and continuing rain was putting pressure on the dams that could cause a failure without the release.
The Army Corps of Engineers early Monday started water releases at the reservoirs ahead of schedule, after water levels increased dramatically in a few hours' time, a Corps spokesman said. Harris and Fort Bend county officials initially said Sunday that residents should be prepared for the influx of water that was scheduled to happen at Addicks around 0200 Monday and a day later at Barker. Officials warned residents they should pack their cars Sunday night and wait for daylight Monday to leave.
The timetable was moved up to prevent more homes from being affected by flooding from the reservoirs, Corps spokesman Jay Townsend said; he added that water levels were rising at a rate of more than six inches per hour in both reservoirs.
Meanwhile, officials in Fort Bend County, in Houston's southwestern suburbs, late Sunday issued widespread mandatory evacuation orders along the Brazos River levee districts. County officials were preparing for the river to reach major flood stages late Sunday. County Judge Robert Herbert said at a news conference that National Weather Service officials were predicting that the water could rise to sixty feet, three feet above 2016 records and what Herbert called an "eight-hundred-year flood level". He said that amount of water would top the levees and carries a threat of levee failure.
Judging from Federal disaster declarations, the storm has so far affected about a quarter of the Texas population, seven million people in eighteen counties. It was blamed for at least two deaths.
As the water rose, the National Weather Service issued another ominous forecast: Before the storm that arrived Friday as a Category 4 hurricane is gone, some parts of Houston and its suburbs could get as much as fifty inches of rain. That would be the highest amount ever recorded in Texas. Some areas have already received about half that amount. Since Thursday, South Houston recorded nearly 25 inches, and the suburbs of Santa Fe and Dayton got 27 inches. "The breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before," the National Weather Service said in a statement.
Average rainfall totals will end up around forty inches for Houston, weather service meteorologist Patrick Burke said.
The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require FEMA's involvement for years. "This disaster's going to be a landmark event," he said.
Rescuers had to give top priority to life-and-death situations, leaving many affected families to fend for themselves. Several hospitals in the Houston area were evacuated due to the rising waters.
Tom Bartlett and Steven Craig pulled a rowboat on a rope through chest-deep water for a mile to rescue Bartlett's mother from her home in west Houston. It took them 45 minutes to reach the house. Inside, the water was halfway up the walls.

What we know:
- Harvey is currently a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 74-95 mph.
- Potential for "feet" of rainfall through early next week. The National Hurricane Center warns of "catastrophic flooding" over the next few days
- Harvey made landfall about 10 p.m. Friday northeast of Corpus Christi as a Category 4, with winds in excess of 130 mph.
- Forecasters predict the storm could double back to where it made landfall by Monday night.
- President Donald Trump says he has signed a disaster declaration for Texas, "which unleashes the full force of government help!", he wrote on Twitter.
- Harvey is the first Category 4 hurricane to hit the Texas coast since Hurricane Carla in 1961:

Latest from the National Hurricane Center:
A NOAA tide gauge at Port Lavaca, Texas, recently measured a water level of 6.2 feet above Mean Higher High Water. The site has also recently reported sustained winds of 52 mph, with a gust to 72 mph).
An automated weather station near Victoria, Texas, recently observed a sustained wind of 58 mph with a gust to 77 mph.
Another tide gauge at Seadrift, Texas, recently measured a water level of 5.7 feet above Mean Higher High Water.

Rico says he has friends in Austin; they're gonna get wet.