ALERT: Houston- Airports Closed Due to Major Flooding (August 28, 2017)
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August 28, 2017
“Harvey” made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane and has caused “epic and catastrophic flooding” according to the National Weather Service.
Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport is closed. It’s official Twitter account states: “All commercial flight operations have been stopped until further notice. IB/OB roads are closed due to flooding.”
A similar Twitter message has been posted for Hobby Airport in Houston: “All commercial operations at Hobby Airport have ceased until further notice. No flights in/out and roadways in/out are closed.”
Major airlines are offering travel waivers, including: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines.
Reuters reports:
Tropical Storm Harvey was set to dump more rain on Houston on Monday, worsening flooding that has paralyzed the country’s fourth-largest city, forced thousands to flee surrounding counties and swelled rivers to levels not seen in centuries.
Harvey, the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, first hit land late on Friday and has killed at least two people. It has since stayed around Texas’ Gulf of Mexico Coast, where it is forecast to remain for several more days, drenching parts of the region with a year’s worth of rain in the span of a week.
Schools, airports and office buildings in Houston were ordered shut on Monday as scores of roads turned into rivers and chest-high water filled neighborhoods in the low-lying city that is home to about 2.3 million people.
According to CNN:
Swollen rivers in east Texas aren’t expected to crest until later this week, but federal officials are already predicting Harvey will drive 30,000 people into shelters and spur 450,000 to seek some sort of disaster assistance.
Several locales have already received 2 feet or more of rain, and forecasters say a reprieve won’t arrive till week’s end at the earliest.
“This is a landmark event for Texas,” said FEMA Administrator Brock Long. “Texas has never seen an event like this.”
Harvey will likely surpass 2008’s Hurricane Ike and 2001’s Tropical Storm Allison, two of the most destructive storms to hit the Gulf coast in recent memory.
Around 13 million people are under flood watches and warnings stretching from Corpus Christi to New Orleans as the remnants of Hurricane Harvey menace the already drenched Texas and Louisiana.
“Catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” continues in southeastern Texas, where bands of storm have been repeatedly pummeling the same areas.
Over the next few days, Tropical Storm Harvey is forecast to head back into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will pick up moisture before moving back over Galveston and into Houston again, CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis says, meaning at least four more days of rain.
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