Tropical Storm Harvey turned into a hurricane on Thursday as it changes its direction to coastal Texas; it is expected to bring threatening flooding
The National Hurricane Center said that Air Force planes had seen the Harvey tropical storm as it gained power in the Gulf of Mexico, with about 60-mile-per-hour winds. A warning for hurricane conditions had been in effect from Port Mansfield to Matagorda.
However, later on in the day, the planes spotted the system strengthening, and the winds increased to close to 100 m.p.h.
In the path of hurricane conditions from the storm system were also parts of Louisiana and the lower Mississippi. Moreover, it was expected to hit Corpus Christi early Saturday as a category 3 hurricane. However, the impact on Louisiana was expected early next week.
“It is getting more and more serious as time goes by,” Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana said. He also mentioned that he had been told that there was a possibility that the hurricane could make landfall in Texas and then go back in the Gulf before heading to Louisiana.
The National Hurricane Center said that the hurricane is closely watched, and tropical storm warnings have been released for everyone’s safety.
On the other hand, it was expected that the movement of the hurricane would slow down while over land, which means that it could drop more rain.
“This is going to play out over the next week or so,” Mr. Edwards said. “This is a very serious storm.”
In some areas, the storm could dangerously unleash at least two feet of rainfall accumulation. This means a great danger of catastrophic flooding through the weekend.
Source: nytimes.com
