Page 27 - 082517

Groton Daily Independent
Friday, Aug. 25, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 056 ~ 27 of 65
Harvey grew quickly Thursday from a tropical depression into a Category 1 hurricane. Early Friday, the National Hurricane Center reported it had become a Category 2 hurricane. Fueled by warm Gulf of Mexico waters, it was projected to become a major Category 3 hurricane.
The last storm of that category to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 in Florida.
Superstorm Sandy, which pummeled New York and New Jersey in 2012, never had the high winds and had lost tropical status by the time it struck. But it was devastating without formally being called a major hurricane.
“We’re forecasting continuing intensi cation right up until landfall,” National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.
All seven Texas counties on the coast from Corpus Christi to the western end of Galveston Island have ordered mandatory evacuations of tens of thousands of residents from all low-lying areas. In four of those counties, of cials ordered their entire county evacuated and warned those who stayed behind that no one could be guaranteed rescue.
Voluntary evacuations have been urged for Corpus Christi itself and for the Bolivar Peninsula, a sand spit near Galveston where many homes were washed away by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike in 2008. Texas of cials expressed concern that not as many people are evacuating compared with previous storms. “A lot of people are taking this storm for granted thinking it may not pose much of a danger to them,” Gov. Greg Abbott told Houston television station KPRC. “Please heed warnings and evacuate as soon as
possible.”
Abbott has activated about 700 members of the state National Guard ahead of Hurricane Harvey mak-
ing landfall.
As of 4 a.m. CDT Friday, Harvey was centered about 180 miles (290 kilometers) southeast of Corpus Christi
and was moving northwest near 9 mph (15 kph) with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph (165 kph). Harvey’s effect would be broad. The hurricane center said storm surges as much as 3 feet could be
expected as far north as Morgan City, Louisiana, some 400 miles away from the anticipated landfall. And once it comes ashore, the storm is expected to stall, dumping copious amounts of rain for days in
areas like ood-prone Houston, the nation’s fourth most-populous city, and San Antonio.
State transportation of cials were considering when to turn all evacuation routes from coastal areas into one-way traf c arteries headed inland. John Barton, a former deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, predicted state of cials will do this before the storm hits, but said timing and determining where to use it are the key factors. Storms change paths and if contra ow starts too
early, supplies such as extra gasoline needed to support impacted areas can’t get in, he said.
This would be the rst hurricane for Bethany Martinez, who is pregnant and has two boys, 5 and 6, who
were with grandparents in Austin. Asked about her demeanor, Martinez replied: “Afraid.”
She’s a front desk clerk at a Holiday Inn Express at Port Aransas. “We are closing down,” Martinez said of the 74-room hotel a couple of blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. It was about two-thirds full before all
guests were cleared out.
Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi was airlifting at least 10 critically ill, mostly premature infants
from its neonatal intensive care unit to Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth. They were expected to ar- rive by early Friday. Cook transport director Debbie Boudreaux said the infants were being moved inland for fear that power outages might disable their ventilators.
Harvey would be the rst signi cant hurricane to hit Texas since Ike in September 2008 brought winds of 110 mph (177 kph) to the Galveston and Houston areas and in icted $22 billion in damage. It would be the rst big storm along the middle Texas coast since Hurricane Claudette in 2003 caused $180 million in damage.
It’s taking aim at the same vicinity as Hurricane Carla, the largest Texas hurricane on record. Carla came ashore in 1961 with wind gusts estimated at 175 mph and in icted more than $300 million in damage. The storm killed 34 people and forced about 250,000 people to evacuate.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was “briefed and will