A van that was reportedly swept away during by Harvey flooding with six family members still trapped inside has been found, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on Wednesday.

A van that was reportedly swept away during by Harvey flooding with six family members still trapped inside has been found, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on Wednesday.

(Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle via AP). Chris Gutierrez, second from right, helps his grandmother, Edelmira Gutierrez, down the stairs of their flooded house and into a waiting fire department truck in the Concord Bridge neighborhood as Addicks Rese...

(Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle via AP). People wade through chest deep water down Pine Cliff Drive as Addicks Reservoir nears capacity due to near constant rain from Tropical Storm Harvey, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017 in Houston.

(Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). Volunteer Elizabeth Hill, 8, plays with evacuee Skyler Smith, 7, at a shelter at St. Thomas Presbyterian Church in west Houston as Tropical Storm Harvey continues to affect the area Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017.

(Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle via AP). The Arkema Inc. chemical plant is flooded from Tropical Storm Harvey, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017, in Crosby, Texas. The plant, about 25 miles (40.23 kilometers) northeast of Houston, lost power and its bac...

(Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP). CORRECTS CREDIT - Danny Hannon carries his dry boots in his backpack as he goes to check his home in the aftermath of Harvey, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017 in Houston. Harvey's floodwaters started dropping across ...

HOUSTON (AP) - The Latest on Tropical Depression Harvey (all times local):

Officials say flood waters are expected to be gone from most of Houston and Harris County by late Friday or early Saturday.

Jeff Lindner, meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District, said Harvey flooded an estimated 136,000 structures in Harris County, or 10 percent of all structures in the county database. He called that a conservative estimate.

Lindner said 70 percent of the county's land mass, or about 1300 square miles, was submerged by at least 1½ feet of water. The heaviest rainfall recorded in Harris County was 47.4 inches on Clear Creek at Interstate 45 in the southeastern part of the county, near the NASA Johnson Space Center.

He said there has been a very slight fall in the waters of Buffalo Bayou, which flows past downtown Houston into the Houston Ship Channel, but flood waters remain in the residential areas on the margins of the Addicks and Barker reservoirs that control flooding on Buffalo Bayou and the Houston Ship Channel. Col. Lars Zetterstrom, commander of the Galveston District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, says they remain full but that their water pools have lowered very slightly.

Zindner said the reservoirs will take three months to fully drain after 35 to 40 inches of rain fell on their watershed.

Zetterstrom says that the Addicks and Barker dams are withstanding their load well.

Houston firefighters are finishing the first of six areas where they went door-to-door checking for anyone left behind in the Harvey flooding.

Fire Chief Sam Pena says firefighters hope to complete the checks in all six areas on Friday. He did not say whether anyone was found dead or alive.

Deputy Police Chief Larry Satterwhite says police have received 30 reports of missing people since Harvey began and have found 11 of those. He says authorities believe most of the remaining 19 have lost the means to communicate and are either in shelters or otherwise safe. He cautioned not to assume they are dead: "It doesn't mean the worst." The death toll from Harvey so far is 32.

Mayor Sylvester Turner says areas on the east and west sides of the city are still dealing with flooding issues, but the rest of Houston is "drying out and drying out well" and traffic is returning to the streets.

Turner says Houston is "turning the corner," with the number of people decreasing in city emergency shelters. He expects to move people from the Toyota Center downtown to the nearby George R. Brown Convention Center on Friday. The convention center, which once housed 10,000 people at one point, sheltered about 8,000 late Thursday.

Officials say a 61-year-old Southeast Texas woman has become the 32nd person confirmed to have died in Texas because of Harvey.

Newton County Sheriff Billy Rowles says Clementine Thomas died Wednesday afternoon when the car she was driving was swept from Texas 87 south of Newton, about 60 miles northeast of Beaumont.

In a statement Thursday, Rowles said witnesses reported that several people risked their lives to rescue Thomas but were unsuccessful. Her body was recovered Thursday afternoon.

Law enforcement officials from the federal government and Texas and Louisiana have formed a working group to investigate and prosecute illegal activity related to Hurricane Harvey.

Houston-based Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez says storm victims already have suffered devastation and "the last thing that victims of the damage need is to be victimized again."

Authorities say bringing about a dozen agencies together into a single focused group is an optimal way to address calls they're already getting about scams in the wake of Harvey. Those calls are going to relevant agencies.

He says they're also employing lessons learned from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and will bring "a comprehensive law enforcement focus" against illegal activities.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton says there's no place for fraud or shady practices in rebuilding Texas and Louisiana.

Local officials in the southeast Texas city of Beaumont struggled to cope after flooding swamped the municipal water system.

The already swollen Neches River rose further as water from more northerly reaches made its way toward the Gulf of Mexico. It led to more rescues by helicopter and boat just like Houston had seen days before, but also to the water system failure. Beaumont's main water pumps are in the Neches, but by early Thursday morning they were underwater. The backups failed, too.

Kyle Hayes, manager of the city of about 120,000 people, said the flooding is making it hard to send in water and other needed resources. The city was still trying to amass enough water to open water distribution stations. Hayes said one truck had arrived Thursday morning.

Donald Marvels runs Beaumont's branch of the Salvation Army. He said he gave out at least 1,500 cases of water Thursday. Flooding was causing problems for his convoy of storm responders trying to get to Beaumont.

The head of the Texas agency that regulates the oil and gas industry is urging people to wait three or four days to fill their cars and trucks with gasoline if they can.

Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton said Thursday that people are panicking and that's causing a run on gas and empty fuel pumps.

He says there is plenty of gas in Houston and elsewhere, but there are logistical problems of making sure all of the stations are getting it.

He says he doesn't think it will be an issue a week from now as long as people stay calm and fill up their tanks as they normally would.

A health expert warns standing water from Harvey could create a boom in the mosquito population and the potential transmission of mosquito-borne diseases.

Joon Lee is a medical entomologist at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He says Harvey's floodwaters will wash away immature mosquito populations from their breeding grounds, but they can be quickly re-established in stagnant water. Lee says mosquito populations will likely explode within the next two weeks and will stay for at least a month or two.

Lee says that could be mean increased transmission of potentially life-threatening, mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis. Lee says outbreaks of Zika, dengue fever and Chikungunya are also possible, but those diseases must originate from a person already infected.

The Trump administration is trying to assure victims of Harvey living in the country illegally that they will not be targeted as they try to access emergency services - as long as they haven't committed other crimes.

Trump's Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert says that: "in terms of immediate lifesaving, no individual human being should worry about their immigration status unless they've committed a crime on top of coming here illegally when it comes to getting food, water and shelter."

He also says that no routine sweeps will be conducted in emergency shelters.

Still, he said that people living in the country illegally should not expect long-term federal assistance reserved for citizens.

He says: "I don't think there's going to be a lot of benefits going out to illegal immigrants."

A Texas A&M University analysis of floodwater samples from the Houston area shows E. coli levels that are 125 times higher than is considered safe for swimming.

Terry Gentry, an associate professor in the university's Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, says even walking through floodwater could lead to infections and other problems.

Gentry says tests from a sample in Cypress, a suburb northwest of Houston, showed bacteria levels 15 times higher than acceptable for wading.

E. coli in water isn't what causes illnesses but is an "indicator bacteria" that signals the presence of fecal matter, which can make people sick.

Filling fuel tanks is becoming increasingly difficult in parts of Texas where some stations were out of gas and pump costs have risen steeply.

In Dallas, lines of cars a block long were common for the few gas stations that had gasoline to sell Thursday. The scene was reminiscent of the gas lines seen during the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.

One Chevron station in downtown Dallas that sold regular gas for $2.29 a gallon just before the storm was charging $2.99 on Thursday. Others charged well over $3, and one downtown Shell station charged $3.97 for a regular gallon of gas. At three gas stations in north Dallas, yellow bags or caution tape was wrapped around pumps just after noon.

The Texas attorney general's office said anyone seeing gas prices of $4 or higher should take pictures and report the stations as price-gouging.

The U.S. Postal Service has posted a list of locations where Houston-area residents can pick up government benefit checks after Harvey forced the temporary closing of several post offices.

The list posted Thursday includes pickup site addresses by ZIP code. Government checks including Social Security payments, Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits and checks from the Office of Personnel Management and the Railroad Retirement Board can be picked up starting Friday. The locations will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Sunday.

The Postal Service says to pick up a check, customers must show proper identification. Customers can also complete a change of address request if they expect to be out of their homes for an extended period.

Houston public schools will start classes two weeks late on Sept. 11 because of Harvey.

The nation's seventh-largest school district had been scheduled to start classes on Monday until Hurricane Harvey stormed ashore in Southeast Texas, leading to devastating flooding in Houston.

Houston also is the largest public school district in Texas, with about 216,000 students and 283 campuses.

Officials at Beaumont's other hospital say they've decided not to move their patients elsewhere but are operating under "extreme emergency conditions."

Christus St. Elizabeth issued a statement Thursday saying 256 patients will remain at the Texas hospital, which gets its water from wells and has a store of potable water.

The statement came hours after Baptist Beaumont Hospital said it was airlifting its nearly 200 patients to other facilities because it no longer had potable water and access was limited by flooding.

The city of about 120,000 people has been hit hard by flooding from Harvey, which came ashore last Friday as a Category 4 hurricane and hovered for days in the region.

The National Weather Service is forecasting flooding in Kentucky and Tennessee as Tropical Depression Harvey travels inland.

Forecasters say the storm is expected to drop 2 inches to 6 inches (50 to 152.4 millimeters) of rain in Kentucky, with the highest totals expected in western Kentucky near the Tennessee border. The heaviest rainfall for a wide swath of the state is expected to start late Thursday and last through Friday afternoon. Forecasters say high winds from the storm could also produce tornadoes.

Some locations in Tennessee could get more than 10 inches (254 millimeters), though most will get 4 inches to 8 inches (101 to 203 millimeters). The say high winds from the storm could also produce tornadoes. The weather service issued a flood warning for areas along several rivers in West Tennessee while a flood watch included the whole region and stretched into Middle Tennessee.

Harvey dumped nearly 52 inches (1321 millimeters)of rain on at least one spot in Texas.. It has caused more than 30 deaths.

The county in Texas that has had the most deaths from Harvey says its morgue is close to capacity because of storm-related bodies and deaths that are not related to the flooding.

Tricia Bentley, spokeswoman for the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences said Thursday that funeral homes have been unable to retrieve the bodies in the aftermath of the storm and it has asked for a large refrigerated 18-wheeler to store more of them.

The county has confirmed 18 storm-related deaths and is investigating 10 more as potentially Harvey-related.

Bentley says the morgue has about 175 bodies total - most of them not related to the storm - and it has a capacity of 200. The agency has requested approval from the state for the tractor-trailer and expects to receive it Friday.

So far, the death toll from Harvey is at least 30.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has declared Sunday a day of prayer for his waterlogged state.

The Republican governor and Vice President Mike Pence visited a church in the city of Rockport on Thursday that was damaged when Harvey came ashore last Friday as a Category 4 hurricane.

Abbott says Texans will pray on Sunday for those affected by the storm and for everyone who has helped them, including first-responders.

Harvey has caused record flooding in parts of the state and has been blamed for the deaths of more than 30 people.

The Harris County Director for FEMA says the federal disaster agency is looking for unique ways to house the tens of thousands of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Harvey.

Tom Fargione said Thursday that FEMA hasn't discounted any ideas because the housing problem is so big.

He says the first priority is getting people out of shelters and into some other form of temporary housing.

FEMA's use of mobile homes following Hurricane Katrina became an issue after unhealthy formaldehyde emissions were detected in the trailers.

Fargione says the agency has trailers in stock and has ordered more, but that they aren't necessarily the best solution.

He says people need to register with the agency to start the process of getting federal help.

Beaumont officials say it's unclear when their Texas city will be able to provide residents with potable water.

City manager Kyle Hayes said during a news conference Thursday that continually rising flood waters on the Neches River are covering pumps that are the primary source for drinking water.

Hayes says city workers won't be able to check the pumps for any needed repairs until the water recedes.

Beaumont's backup water source in nearby Hardin County also has failed.

Earlier Thursday, Baptist Beaumont Hospital evacuated nearly 200 patients by air because of the lack of water.

The city plans to get bottled water as soon as possible and make it available to residents.

The U.S. Border Patrol says it has rescued about 450 people since dispatching vessels to the Houston area on Monday.

John Morris, chief of staff in South Texas, says agents are not enforcing immigration laws and are "absolutely 100 percent here for rescue and safety."

Morris says the agency had 35 boats navigating flooded streets on Thursday. They were brought from stations that patrol areas along the Rio Grande, which is the busiest corridor for illegal crossings.

The Border Patrol did not suspend highway checkpoints in Texas when the storm moved into parts of the state, drawing criticism from advocates who said lives were being put at risk. The arrival of Border Patrol boats in Houston has put some immigrants on edge, but agency leaders have been emphatic that they are only being used for search and rescue.

A company that operates a pipeline that moves nearly 40 percent of the South's gasoline estimates that it will resume carrying fuel through Texas by Sunday.

Steve Baker, a spokesman for Colonial Pipeline, said Thursday that the pipeline is underwater in parts of Texas dealing with flooding from Harvey and that those sections would have to be inspected before it could resume operating. But he says the pipeline is still operating from Louisiana to the eastern states, though deliveries will be "intermittent."

Reopening the shuttered Texas sections of pipeline could help avoid major gas shortages, but huge challenges remain, as several giant Texas refineries were shut down due to the storm.

All of these problems have sent gasoline prices surging. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has risen from about $2.35 a week ago to $2.45 now.

Gasoline prices in Texas and across the country have increased by at least 10 cents since Harvey came ashore and caused record flooding in places.

AAA Texas on Thursday reported the average price at the pump statewide was $2.26 per gallon. That's 12 cents higher than a week ago, before Harvey made landfall, and 4 cents higher than on Wednesday.

The association survey says U.S. gasoline prices Thursday averaged $2.45 per gallon, which is 10 cents higher than a week ago and 5 cents more than on Wednesday.

Harvey made landfall along the Texas coast last Friday and lingered in the region for days, causing catastrophic flooding, killing at least 31 people and causing major disruption to the region's energy sector.

The House will act as early as next week to provide money for relief from tropical storm Harvey.

That's according to a House leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose private deliberations.

Members of the Texas and Louisiana delegation are pressing for fast action when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill from their summer recess next week.

The initial money would be a down payment for immediate recovery efforts - to be followed by a larger aid package later on. It will take weeks or months to assess the full extent of the damage and the needs.

It's not yet known how much money the administration will ask for but a request from the White House is expected within days.

Troy Callihan says he asked his younger brother, Travis, to ride out Harvey with him and his family in the Houston suburbs, but he declined, saying he'd "just kind of hunker down."

Travis Callihan, who lived in Houston, died Monday when he left his pickup truck and fell into floodwaters during the storm.

Troy Callihan told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he's still trying to get more details on exactly what happened.

He says he'll really miss his 45-year-old brother, whom he described as a conservative talk radio fan with a dry sense of humor and a good uncle to his nieces and nephews.

Harvey came ashore last Friday as a Category 4 hurricane and hovered over the region for days, causing record flooding. The confirmed death toll from the storm stood Thursday at 31.

One of the nation's largest convenience store chains plans to stop selling gasoline at about half of its 135 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, as it anticipates shortages due to refinery and pipeline shut-downs.

QuickTrip spokesman Mike Thornbrugh told The Associated Press on Thursday that the company will direct gasoline deliveries to half of its stores, and intends to have stores with gas in all parts of the metro area. All stores will remain open, though only half will have gasoline.

The company is enacting its plan after several major refineries and a key gasoline pipeline shut down after Harvey slammed into the Gulf Coast.

Oklahoma-based QuickTrip enacted a similar plan last year in metro Atlanta, where it has about 133 stores, when the Colonial Pipeline closed due to a leak in Alabama.

The Texas Department of Public Safety reports that more than 37,000 homes have sustained major damage and nearly 7,000 have been destroyed by Harvey and its flooding.

Those figures come from a daily damage estimate compiled from reports by local officials and the figures have been rising.

Harris County, which includes Houston, reports that nearly 30,000 homes suffered minor damage and nearly 12,000 have major damage. Jefferson County, which includes Port Arthur and Beaumont, reports that 5,500 homes were destroyed and 16,000 others sustained major damage in areas where officials have warned that flooding could continue for days.

The report says there has been $180 million in damage to public property across the affected Gulf Coast counties so far.

A Southeast Texas hospital is evacuating nearly 200 patients by air after the local water supply failed because of flooding from Harvey.

Baptist Beaumont Hospital spokeswoman Mary Poole said Thursday that Beaumont's main pumping station lost service so the hospital no longer has potable water.

Poole says access to the hospital is limited, so patients will be airlifted to other facilities.

She says the acute care hospital is working with HCA Healthcare to move patients to facilities that system has in the Houston suburb of Pasadena and elsewhere.

It's not known if Beaumont's other hospital, Christus St. Elizabeth, is being evacuated. A message left for an administrator was not immediately returned.

The U.S. Navy is sending two ships to provide humanitarian aid to areas affected by Harvey.

News outlets report that the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge and the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill are set to depart Virginia for the Gulf Coast on Thursday.

The ships can provide medical support and maritime security, among other things.

North Carolina, meanwhile, is sending five swift water rescue teams to help out. The state's Department of Public Safety says the teams can conduct a variety of rescues, including using small boats and other equipment to rescue people from flooded homes.

Harvey initially came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane in Texas on Friday, then went back out to sea and lingered off the coast as a tropical storm for days, inundating flood-prone Houston.

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told lawmakers from Texas and Louisiana on a conference call that "we are with you."

The call Wednesday night included federal officials from the Department of Homeland Security. They say the full scope of damages might not be known for weeks or more.

No specific dollar figures or timing was discussed, according to a House GOP aide who requested anonymity to disclose details of the private conversation.

But there will likely be the need for immediate support - and McCarthy and other leaders made clear the House is prepared to act.

Congress returns next week from its August recess and a response to Harvey will be at the top of the agenda.

Colonial Pipeline says it plans to shut down a key line that supplies gasoline to the South due to storm-related refinery shutdowns and Harvey's effect on its facilities west of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The Georgia-based company said in a statement that it expects to shut off the line Thursday. The company had already closed down another line that transports primarily diesel and aviation fuels.

The pipeline provides nearly 40 percent of the South's gasoline.

In September 2016, a leak and gas spill in Alabama that closed the Colonial Pipeline led to days of empty gas station pumps and higher prices in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas.

The company didn't say how long it expects the closure to last, saying it will know more when workers can evaluate its facilities.

Local officials say explosions at a flooded Houston-area chemical plant produced no toxins, although federal authorities are describing the resulting plumes as "incredibly dangerous."

Assistant Harris County Fire Chief Bob Royall told a news conference Thursday that the explosions emitted 30- to 40-foot (9- to 12-meter) flames and black smoke.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said no toxins were released and that there's no danger to the community. He says sheriff's deputies who were hospitalized suffering from irritated eyes after the blasts have all been released.

But at a news conference in Washington, D.C. Thursday, FEMA administrator Brock Long said he considers plumes from the explosion "incredibly dangerous."

Gonzalez says he expects the fire to burn itself out.

This item has been altered to correct the spelling of Bob Royall's name. It had been misspelled as Rayall.

A Houston mother is warning people in the area to stay out of Harvey's floodwaters after her son was electrocuted while wading through the water to check on his sister's home.

Jodell Pasek says her 25-year-old son Andrew was unaware that a landscape light had electrified the water when he stepped into it Tuesday afternoon. She said he fell and grabbed a lamppost and told a friend who was with him to stay away because he was dying.

She says she's speaking out despite her grief to ensure her son didn't lose his life in vain.

Pasek lost her older son in a car accident in 1993. She tells KPRC-TV that she's pulling her strength from that experience.

Two explosions have been reported at a Houston-area chemical plant that lost power amid flooding from Harvey.

The Houston Chronicle says a statement from the company says the Harris County Emergency Operations Center reported two explosions and black smoke coming from the Arkema Inc. plant early Thursday.

In a tweet, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said a deputy was taken to the hospital after inhaling fumes. Nine other deputies drove themselves to the hospital as a precaution, the paper reported.

A spokeswoman for the plant in Crosby, Texas, said late Wednesday that the flooded facility had lost power and backup generators amid Harvey flooding, leaving it without refrigeration for chemicals that become volatile as the temperature rises.

Beaumont, Texas, has lost its water supply because of Harvey.

Officials there say the city has lost service from its main pump station due to rising waters of the Neches River caused by Harvey.

The pump station is along the river and draws water from it as a main source for the city's water system.

The officials added in their statement early Thursday that the city has also lost its secondary water source at the Loeb wells in Hardin County. They say there's no water supply for Beaumont's water system at this time.

They say they must wait until the water levels from Harvey recede before determining the extent of damage.

Major dangers for the U.S. Gulf Coast area loomed Wednesday with the threat of major flooding further east near the Texas-Louisiana line and an explosion at a Texas chemical plant as Harvey's floodwaters began receding in the Houston area after five days of torrential rain.

As the water receded, Houston's fire department said it would begin a block-by-block search Thursday of thousands of flooded homes. The confirmed death toll climbed to at least 31 on Wednesday, including six family members - four of them children - whose bodies were pulled Wednesday from a van that had been swept off a Houston bridge into a bayou.

Another crisis related to Harvey emerged at a chemical plant about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Houston. A spokeswoman for the Arkema Inc. plant in Crosby, Texas, said late Wednesday that the flooded facility had lost power and backup generators, leaving it without refrigeration for chemicals that become volatile as the temperature rises.

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Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> HOUSTON (AP) – Houston’s mayor says city officials are keeping watch on the ongoing release of water from two flood-control reservoirs in the Houston area to see if it might cause additional flooding in some neighborhoods.

The Army Corps of Engineers says the controlled release into Buffalo Bayou is being done to relief pressure on the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, which have been overwhelmed by flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey.

The reservoirs help prevent flooding in downtown Houston and other urban areas to the east.

The release of water is expected to flood some neighborhoods near the reservoirs. And officials are worried that other homes in areas near Buffalo Bayou, which had gone out of its banks, could be impacted as well.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says he’s asking the Harris County Flood Control District for more information on how much higher Buffalo Bayou could rise and whether that could result in more homes in west Houston being flooded.Houston officials say fire personnel have responded to more than 5,500 calls for service in the city since Harvey began pounding the area this weekend.

Fire Chief Samuel Pena said during a news conference Monday that hundreds of emergency responders from across Texas and beyond are coming to Houston to help with rescue operations.

Mayor Sylvester Turner said at the same news conference that about 5,500 people have moved into city shelters. About half of them are at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Police Chief Art Acevedo added that police officers from several states will augment Houston police efforts, particularly in light of concerns with looting.

Acevedo said four people had been arrested for looting as of Monday morning.

Water in a Houston-area neighborhood along a creek that’s overflowing has reached the roofline of single-story homes

People can be heard yelling for help from inside homes in the Cypress Forest Estates subdivision in northern Harris County also can be heard as a steady procession of rescue boats head into the area.

One man, Joe Garcia, wearing a blue jacket and a New York Mets cap, was carrying his German Shepherd, Heidi, in chest-deep water before he was picked up by a boat.

Garcia said he floated out a tub of his belongings, then went back in to get his dog. The current is swift and the waters have continued to rise Monday.

Houston police Chief Art Acevedo says authorities have rescued 2,000 people from flooding in the city.

Acevedo says the city has 185 critical rescue requests still pending as of Monday morning. He says the goal is to rescue those people by the end of the day.

The comments came at a news conference where officials provided updates on Harvey, which is still pouring rain on the Houston area.

The shelter set up inside the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston has already reached half its capacity.

Ken Sandy, a shelter manager for the American Red Cross, said Monday that more than 2,600 people took shelter in the George R. Brown Convention Center. Organizers with the Red Cross estimate the convention center can accommodate roughly 5,000 people.

Sandy says the shelter is currently out of cots and waiting for more to arrive.

With Tropical Storm Harvey still pouring rain on the Houston area, thousands more people are expected to need to evacuate their homes.

The Red Cross has also set up other shelters throughout the area.

First lady Melania Trump will join President Donald Trump on his trip to storm-battered Texas.

The first lady’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said on Twitter Monday: “FLOTUS will travel to #Texas w POTUS this week.”

The White House has said Trump will travel to Texas on Tuesday. More details of the trip have not yet been released.

Harvey is the first major natural disaster of Trump’s presidency and a significant test for a White House that is often chaotic and rife with infighting.

A major South Texas airport has reopened after being closed due to Harvey.

A city statement said Corpus Christi International Airport resumed commercial air service Monday. Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane late Friday about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from there.

Two other major airports in the region, George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport in Houston, remain closed as heavy rain and flooding continue. Both have been shut down since midday Sunday as Harvey-related flooding swamped roads leading to the airports

A Houston-area official says hundreds of people who’ve been rescued from their homes, vehicles and other places amid catastrophic flooding are being taken to dry land but not straight to shelters.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett is the top administrator for the county that’s home to Houston. He said at a news conference Monday that many people are being ferried to a parking lot, school or other dry area as rescue personnel move on to the next rescue that’s needed. Those people then are struggling to find shelter, food and other resources.

Emmett says the focus now is on getting those people to shelters.

Meanwhile, Houston police Chief Art Acevedo on Monday said that he knows of 200 to 250 water rescues that still must be done in the city and that he hopes they’ll be completed by the end of the day.

President Donald Trump has issued a federal emergency declaration for Louisiana as a storm that’s flooded Houston dumps heavy bands of rain on that state.

Trump’s emergency declaration on Monday initially covers five parishes in southwest Louisiana: Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis and Vermillion.

A White House statement says the action authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in those counties related to Harvey. The declaration also authorizes the federal government to cover 75 percent of costs of certain emergency protective measures.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards says lifesaving efforts including search and rescue and shelters will be needed, especially in southwest Louisiana where forecasters say 10 to 20 inches (25 to 51 centimeters) of rain could fall.

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• Woman says she was fired over her heavy periods </s> HOUSTON (AP) — Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast some 175 miles (280 kilometers) from Houston, but the nation’s fourth-largest city has never needed a direct strike from a catastrophic storm to flood.

Regularly inundated by floodwaters ever since its settlement in the mid-1800s, Houston looked on warily even before Harvey roared ashore. In Houston, the chronic deluges that have repeatedly swamped its neighborhoods are getting worse and more costly — not just for locals, but for federal taxpayers.

An Associated Press analysis of government data found last year that if the county that is home to Houston were a state, it would have ranked in the top five or six in every category of repeat flood losses. That’s defined as any property with two or more losses in a 10-year period each totaling at least $1,000.

Nationally, repeat federal flood relief payouts averaged about $3,000 per square mile (2.5 square kilometers). But in greater Houston, the payouts were nearly a whopping $500,000 per square mile (2.5 square kilometers).

Harvey, which blasted ashore as a major Category 4 hurricane before weakening to a tropical storm, has swamped roads and paralyzed neighborhoods throughout the city. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said more than 2,000 calls for help had been received by midday Sunday. Flooding was so bad that residents were being urged to seek refuge on their roofs.

The National Weather Service said Sunday that some parts of Houston may receive a Texas record of 50 inches (1,270 millimeters) of rain.

Here’s a look at some of the reasons Houston has been so susceptible to flooding:

Founded on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou, Houston barely rises above sea level. Making matters worse, its flat terrain and clay soil are prone to the flooding of a humid climate that produces extreme rainfall. At least three dozen major floods have been recorded since Houston’s founding, including one in April 2016 that claimed eight lives.

Floods prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build reservoirs in the 1940s in the western area of Harris County, which encompasses Houston. That addressed some problems, yet few notable flood-control efforts have been undertaken since, experts told the AP last year. Houston in recent decades has focused on improving drainage and building thousands of detention ponds, concrete-lined pools capturing stormwater and piping it out. But, residents say, some developers have skimped on the flood-prevention systems.

In the last quarter century, greater Houston has added a million people and its commercial development has cut in half the amount of wetlands per capita that could soak up stormwater runoff. Paved land generates five times more runoff, and those surfaces in Harris County increased by more than 25 percent during that same time, researchers have said. Houston is also the only major U.S. city without zoning, and critics say local leaders have been pro-developer.

As if Houston’s natural elements weren’t challenging enough, intense downpours, measuring at least 10 inches (250 millimeters), have doubled in frequency during the last three decades. Rising average temperatures have packed 7 percent more moisture into the atmosphere over Houston. Contributing to that is warmer water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas at http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv. </s> Tropical Storm Harvey continued to deluge southeast Texas with rain and surging floodwater Tuesday, breaking the record for the most extreme rainfall on the U.S. mainland.

Since Harvey made landfall Friday night as a hurricane, some areas of Houston have seen up to 50 inches of rain — more than they usually receive in a year.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Mont Belvieu industrial suburb east of Houston recorded 51.12 inches of water, breaking the highest previous record of 48 inches from 1978's tropical storm Amelia in Medina, Texas.

"It's the heaviest storm on record anywhere in the U.S. outside Hawaii," said John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas state climatologist and professor at Texas A&M University. "And it's still raining."

With muddy brown water engulfing huge swaths of the nation's fourth-largest city and much of the Gulf Coast, at least 10 people are dead and thousands are in shelters.

Federal officials have estimated as many as 30,000 displaced residents may seek temporary shelter and more than 450,000 people likely are to seek federal aid.

"In four days, we've seen a trillion gallons of water in Harris County — enough water to run Niagara Falls for 15 days," said Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District, who estimated as many as 100,000 homes in the 1,777-square-mile area had flooded. "It's beyond anything we've ever seen and will probably ever see."

As a light rain continued to drizzle, a reservoir west of downtown Houston spilled over for the first time in its history, leaving yet more residents desperately scrambling to safety.

In a Tuesday morning press briefing, Police Chief Art Acevedo said officers had rescued 3,500 people across the city and were launching more boats in the water every hour. They also arrested a crew of armed robbers who were hijacking vehicles.

"We're still trying to get to folks," Acevedo said. "Don't give up on us. Seek the higher ground. We will get to you."

Overnight, the number of people sheltering at the George R. Brown convention center swelled to 9,000 people. Its capacity is supposed to be 5,000. Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for cots and food for an additional 10,000 people, and officials are planning to open other mega shelters.

"We are not turning anyone away," Turner said.

Houston highways remained mostly empty and blocked by police early Tuesday. A few cars and trucks navigated wet streets downtown.

Families still were arriving at the massive convention center, some with sleeping pads and rain boots, others with their belongings in garbage bags. Some feared for relatives left behind, and others worried they might soon face shortages of food and other supplies.

By Tuesday, the death toll had risen to at least 10 after a man in Montgomery County, north of Houston, drowned Monday night while trying to swim across a flooded road.

Officials in Harris County, which includes Houston, have reported at least six "potentially storm-related" fatalities. A 60-year-old woman died Monday in Porter, a small community north of Houston, when a large oak tree fell on her mobile home. Another person died in the small coastal town of Rockport, near where Harvey made landfall. A 52-year-old homeless man was found dead in La Marque, a small city near Galveston.

Early Tuesday, a major dam outside Houston began to overflow, threatening some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods to the west of the city. Engineers had tried to prevent Addicks Reservoir from overspilling by releasing some of its water Monday, but flood control officials reported Tuesday morning that water was beginning to seep over the top of a spillway, the first time water had breached the dam.

In some areas, the water in the Houston area was so deep that rain sensors no longer were working. The Harris County Flood Control District, a government agency that works to reduce the effects of flooding in the area that includes Houston, announced multiple water level and rain sensors were out of service due to flooding.

In Brazoria County, south of Houston, the Brazos River was beginning to overflow its banks. On Tuesday morning, a levee breached in the Columbia Lakes neighborhood.

"We are asking residents to please get out," said Sharon Trower, a spokeswoman for the county, which already has rescued hundreds of residents after severe flooding from heavy rainfall. "The additional river flooding is just going to be catastrophic."

Major roads throughout the county already were closed because of flooding.

While catastrophic flooding continues across southeast Texas, flash flood watches dropped for western portions of the Houston area as light to moderate rain fell Monday night. The National Weather Service said the threat of flooding is gradually shifting east.

"Expect improving conditions this afternoon and evening across the area as Harvey pushes northeast," the National Weather Service's Houston/Galveston office said in an update.

After assuring Texas on Monday that Congress would deliver swift federal aid, President Donald Trump visited the storm-ravaged state Tuesday.

As Harvey moved closer to neighboring Louisiana on the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu urged residents to stay home and shelter in place.

A few inches of rain could cause serious problems in New Orleans, which still is recovering from flooding after thunderstorms this month overwhelmed the city's drainage system.

More than 5 inches of rain fell in some parts of the city Monday, causing localized floods. Flash flood watches were in effect as meteorologists forecast 4 more inches of rain Tuesday.

"Today, we are a resilient city with greater resolve, but we remain vigilant in the face of another threatening storm," Landrieu said in a statement. "While this is a somber day for New Orleanians, the determination and spirit of our people gives us great hope for the future." </s> The remnants of Hurricane Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into Houston on Sunday as rising water led thousands of people to seek higher ground and overwhelmed rescuers.

Helicopters, boats and high-water vehicles swarmed around inundated areas, pulling people from their homes or from the turbid water, which was high enough in some places to gush into second floors.

The flooding was so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas.

They urged people to get on top of their homes to avoid becoming trapped in attics and to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to their location.

As the water rose, the National Weather Service offered another ominous forecast:

Before the storm passes, some parts of Houston and its suburbs could receive as much as 50 inches of rain. That would be the highest amount ever recorded in Texas.

Houston Police SWAT officer Daryl Hudeck carries Connie Pham and her 13-month-old son Aiden after rescuing them from their home surrounded in Houston today.

"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 40 inches for Houston, weather service meteorologist Patrick Burke said.

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, said the government expected to conduct a "mass care mission" and predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require Fema's involvement for years.

"This disaster's going to be a landmark event," Mr Long said.

Rescuers had to give top priority to life-and-death situations, leaving many displaced families to fend for themselves. The city's main convention centre was quickly opened as a shelter.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez used Twitter to field calls for assistance. Among those seeking help was a woman who posted: "I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up."

Some people used inflatable beach toys, rubber rafts and even air mattresses to get through the water to safety.

Others waded while carrying rubbish bags stuffed with their belongings and small animals in pet carriers.

Wilford Martinez, right, is rescued from his flooded car by Harris County Sheriff's Department Richard Wagner along Interstate 610 in floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey today.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said authorities had received more than 2,000 calls for help, with more coming in.

He urged drivers to stay off flooded roads to avoid adding to the number of those stranded.

"I don't need to tell anyone this is a very, very serious and unprecedented storm," Mr Turner told a news conference.

"We have several hundred structural flooding reports. We expect that number to rise pretty dramatically."

The mayor defended his decision not to ask residents to evacuate before the heavy rain from Harvey swamped roads and neighbourhoods.

He said there was no way to know which areas were most vulnerable.

"If you think the situation right now is bad, and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare," he said, citing the risks of sending the city's 2.3 million inhabitants onto the highways at the same time.

Rainfall of more than four inches per hour resulted in water levels higher than in any recent floods and higher than during Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, said Jeff Linder of flood control district in Harris County, which includes Houston.

Evacuees wade down a flooded section of Interstate 610 as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise.

The Coast Guard, which received more than 300 requests for help, deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans.

Staff at a Houston television station broadcasting live coverage of the floods had to evacuate after water started to gush into the building.

The anchors and news operations at KHOU moved first to a second floor before finally abandoning the station.

President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday morning that he would visit Texas "as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety".

Police said a sinkhole has opened on a Texas road about 25 miles (40 kilometres) south west of Houston as Harvey dumps more rain on the region.

Rosenberg police tweeted a photo of the gaping hole that spread across more than half of a two-lane road - Farm-to-Market 762.

Water could be seen filling the sinkhole as pieces of road hung from the edge of the damaged roadway. </s> Continuing with our coverage of the storm that's inundating Houston, we turn now to the response by state and local government. Ben Philpott from member station KUT is with us now from Austin. Ben, thanks so much for joining us.

MARTIN: Tell us more about what the state is doing to - what the state is doing to respond to this overwhelming natural disaster.

PHILPOTT: Yeah. Right now the state's got about 3,000 National and State Guard troops that have been activated to assist in recovery efforts. The governor, this afternoon, said that the state is essentially in both recovery and rescue efforts. When you go to places like Corpus Christi, as the storm's moved on, they're beginning recovery. And then, of course, you have Houston, where at the moment, it is all about rescue. They do also have like 20 helicopters in the air from the Coast Guard along with dozens of water rescue boats.

MARTIN: You know, obviously, the immediate need is rescuing people and taking care of people. But the question has to be asked if state and local governments were prepared for this and if they did the right things ahead of time. And there is, of course, the whole question of whether an evacuation should be - should have been ordered. What are they saying about that?

PHILPOTT: Yeah. Today, the governor said that this is just not the time to even talk about things like that. That it is about rescue. But Houston mayor, Sylvester Turner, also in a press conference today, you know, when talking about whether or not Houston and Harris County, which surrounds Houston, should have been evacuated earlier, he just said, you know, look, that just would not have worked. And here's what he had to say.

SYLVESTER TURNER: Look, Houston, Harris County - Harris County, got a lot of rain, a lot of flooding. When you combine Houston and Harris County, you literally cannot put 6.5 million people on the road. If you think the situation right now is bad, you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare.

PHILPOTT: And, you know, a lot of this comes from kind of lessons learned from Hurricane Rita, which hit in 2005. You know, more than 100 people died because of that hurricane. And the vast majority of those died during evacuation efforts. People got on the highways, got on the roads and could go nowhere. And then the storm came through and hit. So that's been in their mind this time when they've said, listen, we want people to just stay put.

MARTIN: Was there any logic as to which cities and counties ordered evacuations and which one didn't?

PHILPOTT: I think the local officials - because this, again, was something that was done by like a city-by-city decision, I think that they would say, yes, there was logic within their own city decisions, that they felt like either, you know, the storm would come in and then move through and everything, you know, would be fine.

Others inland - it's been really interesting. Corpus Christi did not have a mandatory evacuation. This city is right on the Gulf Coast. You know, 30, 40 miles inland towns, like Victoria, Texas, did have mandatory evacuations, you know, trying to move as many people out of the town as possibly could. But, you know, that was partially because of different rivers and creeks and streams that were coming through Victoria. So they wanted to make sure that their people were out.

MARTIN: So before we let you go, Ben - we only have about 45 seconds left. Some of the worst stories we're hearing today are from Houston. Is the local government there up to the task? What are you hearing about their response to this?

PHILPOTT: You know, they're are saying that, yes, they're doing everything they can. They have resources from, not just Texas and not just the federal government, but eight different states are offering - at least eight different states were offering to send in as much as they can to help. They are just asking people, again, to stay put. Call if it is absolutely necessary and it's an emergency, and they will get you out.

MARTIN: That is Ben Philpott of member station KUT in Austin, the state capital. Ben, thank you so much. </s> Floodwaters reached the rooflines of single-story homes Monday and people could be heard pleading for help from inside as Harvey poured rain on the Houston area for a fourth consecutive day after a chaotic weekend of rising water and rescues.

The nation's fourth-largest city was still mostly paralyzed by one of the largest downpours in U.S. history. And there was no relief in sight from the storm that spun into Texas as a Category 4 hurricane, then parked over the Gulf Coast. With nearly 2 more feet of rain expected on top of the 30-plus inches in some places, authorities worry the worst might be yet to come.

Harvey has been blamed for at least three confirmed deaths, including a woman killed Monday in the town of Porter, northeast of Houston, when a large oak tree dislodged by heavy rains toppled onto her trailer home.

A Houston television station reported Monday that six family members were believed to have drowned when their van was swept away by floodwaters. The KHOU report was attributed to three family members the station did not identify. No bodies have been recovered.

Police Chief Art Acevedo told The Associated Press he had no information about the report but said he's "really worried about how many bodies we're going to find."

According to the station, four children and their grandparents were feared dead after the van hit high water Sunday when crossing a bridge in the Greens Bayou area.

The driver of the vehicle, the children's great-uncle, reportedly escaped before the van sank by grabbing a tree limb. He told the children to try to escape through the back door, but they were unable to get out.

The disaster unfolded on an epic scale in one of America's most sprawling metropolitan centers. The Houston metro area covers about 10,000 square miles, an area slightly bigger than New Jersey. It's crisscrossed by about 1,700 miles of channels, creeks and bayous that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles to the southeast from downtown.

The storm is generating an amount of rain that would normally be seen only once in more than 1,000 years, said Edmond Russo, a deputy district engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers, which was concerned that floodwater would spill around a pair of 70-year-old reservoir dams that protect downtown Houston.

The flooding was so widespread that the levels of city waterways have equaled or surpassed those of Tropical Storm Allison from 2001, and no major highway has been spared some overflow.

The city's normally bustling business district was virtually deserted Monday, with emergency vehicles making up most of the traffic.

Rescuers continued plucking people from the floodwaters. Mayor Sylvester Turner put the number rescued by police at more than 3,000. The Coast Guard said it also rescued more than 3,000 by boat and air and was taking more than 1,000 calls per hour.

Chris Thorn was among the many volunteers still helping with the mass evacuation that began Sunday. He drove with a buddy from the Dallas area with their flat-bottom hunting boat to pull strangers out of the water.

"I couldn't sit at home and watch it on TV and do nothing since I have a boat and all the tools to help," he said.

They got to Spring, Texas, where Cypress Creek had breached Interstate 45 and went to work, helping people out of a gated community near the creek.

"It's never flooded here," Lane Cross said from the front of Thorn's boat, holding his brown dog, Max. "I don't even have flood insurance."

A mandatory evacuation was ordered for the low-lying Houston suburb of Dickinson, home to 20,000. Police cited the city's fragile infrastructure in the floods, limited working utilities and concern about the weather forecast.

In Houston, questions continued to swirl about why the mayor did not issue a similar evacuation order.

Turner has repeatedly defended the decision and did so again Monday, insisting a mass evacuation of millions of people by car was a greater risk than enduring the storm.

"Both the county judge and I sat down together and decided that we were not in direct path of the storm, of the hurricane, and the safest thing to do was for people to stay put, make the necessary preparations. I have no doubt that the decision we made was the right decision."

He added, "Can you imagine if millions of people had left the city of Houston and then tried to come back in right now?"

The Red Cross quickly set up the George R. Brown Convention Center and other venues as shelters. The center, which was also used to house Hurricane Katrina refugees from New Orleans in 2005, can accommodate roughly 5,000 people. By Monday evening, it was nearly full.

At the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, the Army Corps started releasing water Monday because water levels were climbing at a rate of more than 6 inches per hour, Corps spokesman Jay Townsend said.

The move was supposed to help shield the business district from floodwaters, but it also risked flooding thousands more homes in nearby subdivisions. Built after devastating floods in 1929 and 1935, the reservoirs were designed to hold water until it can be released downstream at a controlled rate.

In the Cypress Forest Estates neighborhood in northern Harris County, people called for help from inside homes as water from a nearby creek rose to their eaves. A steady procession of rescue boats floated into the area.

Harvey increased slightly in strength Monday as it drifted back over the warm Gulf, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Forecasters expect the system to stay over water with 45 mph (72 kph) winds for 36 hours and then head back inland east of Houston sometime Wednesday. The system will then head north and lose its tropical strength.

Before then, up to 20 more inches of rain could fall, National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini said Monday.

That means the flooding will get worse in the days ahead and the floodwaters will be slow to recede once Harvey finally moves on, the weather service said.

Sometime Tuesday or early Wednesday, parts of the Houston region will probably break the nearly 40-year-old U.S. record for the biggest rainfall from a tropical system — 48 inches, set by Tropical Storm Amelia in 1978 in Texas, meteorologists said.

The amount of water in Houston was so unprecedented that the weather service on Wednesday had to update the color charts on its official rainfall maps to indicate the heavier totals.

In Louisiana, the images of the devastation in Houston stirred up painful memories for many Hurricane Katrina survivors.

"It really evoked a lot of emotions and heartbreak for the people who are going through that now in Houston," Ray Gratia said as he picked up sandbags for his New Orleans home, which flooded during the 2005 hurricane.

In Washington, President Donald Trump's administration assured Congress that the $3 billion balance in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster fund was enough to handle immediate needs, such as debris removal and temporary shelter for displaced residents. Trump plans to visit Texas today.

Harvey was the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961's Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record. </s> HOUSTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey, which has already killed at least seven people in Texas and was expected to drive tens of thousands from their homes, will likely rise in the coming days, officials warned on Monday as heavy rains continued to pound the U.S. Gulf Coast.

National Guard troops, police officers, rescue workers and civilians raced in helicopters, boats and special high-water trucks to rescue the hundreds of people still stranded in and around Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city.

The storm was the most powerful hurricane to strike Texas in more than 50 years when it came ashore on Friday near Corpus Christi, 220 miles (354 km) south of Houston, and the worst was far from over as the National Weather Service issued numerous flood warnings across the region.

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to go to Texas on Tuesday to survey the damage and may in the future visit Louisiana where the storm is now dumping rain.

Trump, facing the biggest U.S. natural disaster since he took office in January, has signed disaster proclamations for Texas and Louisiana, triggering federal relief efforts.

Harvey has killed at least six people in Harris County, where Houston is located, said Tricia Bentley, a spokeswoman for the county coroner's office, including a man who died in a house fire on Friday night and an elderly woman driving through flooded streets on the city's west side the next day.

A 60-year-old woman died in neighboring Montgomery County when a tree fell on her trailer home while she slept, the local medical examiner said on Twitter. With other people missing, the death toll could rise.

Both of Houston's major airports were shut down, along with most major highways, rail lines and a hospital, where patients were evacuated over the weekend. As of Monday evening 267,000 Texans were left without power in the southeast corner of the state.

One of three main rivers crossing Houston, the Brazos, was expected to crest sometime on Tuesday at 59 feet (18 meters), the National Weather Service said. The San Jacinto River was expected to crest over Interstate 10, the major east-west artery through Houston.

The Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management issued a "shelter in place" warning to residents of La Porte and Shoreacres, about 25 miles (40 km) east of Houston, after a chemical leak was caused by a ruptured pipeline.

As stunned families surveyed the wreckage of destroyed homes and roads flooded or clogged with debris, Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned Houstonians to brace for a long recovery.

"We need to recognize this is going to be a new and different normal for this entire region," Abbott said.

Harvey was expected to linger over Texas' Gulf Coast for the next few days, dropping another 10 to 20 inches (25 to 51 cm) of rain, with threats of flooding extending into Louisiana.

In scenes evoking the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, police and Coast Guard teams have rescued at least 2,000 people so far, plucking many from rooftops by helicopter, as they urged the hundreds more believed to be marooned in flooded houses to hang towels or sheets outside to alert rescuers.

Harvey's center was about 100 miles (160 km) south of Houston and forecast to arc slowly toward the city through Wednesday, with the worst floods expected later that day and on Thursday.

Schools and office buildings were closed throughout the metropolitan area, home to 6.8 million people, as chest-high water filled some neighborhoods in the low-lying city.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Monday that it was releasing water from the nearby Addicks and Barker reservoirs into Buffalo Bayou, the primary body of water running through Houston.

"The more they release it could go up and it could create even additional problems," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner warned. But the release was said to be necessary to prevent an uncontrolled surge of water, which Turner said "would be exponentially worse."

Torrential rain also hit areas more than 150 miles (240 km) away, swelling rivers and causing a surge that was heading toward the Houston area, where numerous rivers and streams already have been breached. About 5,500 people were in shelters as of Monday morning, city officials said, with Federal Emergency Management Agency director Brock Long forecasting that 30,000 would eventually be housed temporarily in shelters.

Regina Costilla, 48, said she and her 16-year-old son had been rescued from their home by a good Samaritan with a boat. She worried until she was reunited with her husband and large dog, who had been left behind because they did not fit into the boat.

"I'm not complaining; we're alive," said Costilla. "When I saw the forecast of the storm I said I'll be happy if we get out with our lives."

In Rockport, National Guard troops passed out water to residents as utility crews worked to restore power in the city, amid reports of sporadic looting.

Houston did not order an evacuation due to concerns about people being stranded on city highways now consumed by floods, Turner said.

Abbott, who had suggested on Friday that people leave the area, declined to second-guess the mayor on Monday, telling reporters, "Decisions about evacuations are something that are behind us."

Gasoline futures hit their highest in two years as Harvey shut down multiple refiners, knocking out about 13 percent of total U.S. refining capacity, based on company reports and Reuters estimates.

Almost half of the U.S. refining capacity is in the Gulf region.

The nation's second-largest refinery was shutdown in Baytown, and the nation's largest refinery in Port Arthur was weighing shutting down with a final decision expected Tuesday, sources told Reuters.

The floods' path of destruction could destroy as much as $20 billion in insured property, making it one of the costliest storms in history for U.S. insurers, according to Wall Street analysts. </s> HOUSTON — A pair of 70-year-old reservoir dams that protect downtown Houston from flooding began overflowing Tuesday, adding to the rising floodwaters from Harvey that have crippled the city after five consecutive days of rain.

Engineers began releasing water from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs Monday to ease the strain on the dams. But the releases were not enough to relive the pressure after one of the heaviest downpours in U.S. history, Army Corps of Engineers officials said. Both reservoirs are at record highs.

The release of the water means that more homes and streets will flood, and some homes will be inundated for up to a month, said Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District.

The county is trying to determine where the water will go, Lindner said.

Meanwhile, more than 17,000 people are seeking refuge in Texas shelters, the American Red Cross said. With rescues continuing, that number seemed certain to grow.

Calls for rescue have so overwhelmed emergency teams that they have had little time to search for bodies. And officials acknowledge that fatalities from Harvey could soar once the floodwaters start to recede from one of America’s most sprawling metropolitan centers.

More than four days after the storm ravaged the Texas coastline as a Category 4 hurricane, authorities had confirmed only three deaths — including a woman killed Monday when heavy rains dislodged a large oak tree onto her trailer home in the small town of Porter. But unconfirmed reports of others missing or presumed dead were growing.

“We know in these kinds of events that, sadly, the death toll goes up historically,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told The Associated Press. “I’m really worried about how many bodies we’re going to find.”

One Houston woman said Monday that she presumes six members of a family, including four of her grandchildren, died after their van sank into Greens Bayou in East Houston.

Virginia Saldivar told The Associated Press her brother-in-law was driving the van Sunday when a strong current took the vehicle over a bridge and into the bayou. The driver was able to get out and urged the children to escape through the back door, Saldivar said, but they could not.

“I’m just hoping we find the bodies,” Saldivar said.

Houston emergency officials could not confirm the deaths.

A spokeswoman for a Houston hotel said one of its employees disappeared while helping about 100 guests and workers evacuate the building.

The disaster is unfolding on an epic scale, with the nation’s fourth-largest city mostly paralyzed by the storm that parked itself over the Gulf Coast. With nearly 2 more feet (61 centimeters) of rain expected on top of the 30-plus inches (76 centimeters) in some places, authorities worried the worst might be yet to come.

Early Tuesday, Harvey continued to drench Houston and the surrounding area. Rain fell at about half an inch (1 centimeter) per hour over Harris County — home to Houston — and up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) per hour to the east.

The Houston metro area covers about 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers), an area slightly bigger than New Jersey. It’s crisscrossed by about 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) of channels, creeks and bayous that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the southeast from downtown.

President Donald Trump was expected Tuesday in Corpus Christi and Austin for briefings on the first major natural disaster of his administration. Vice President Mike Pence said in an interview with Corpus Christi radio station KKTX that he will visit southeast Texas later this week.

Forecasters expect the storm to linger over the Gulf before heading back inland east of Houston sometime Wednesday. The system will then head north and lose its tropical strength.

It could creep as far east as Mississippi by Thursday, meaning New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina unleashed its full wrath in 2005, is in Harvey’s path. Foreboding images of Harvey were lighting up weather radar screens early Tuesday, the 12th anniversary of the day Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish.

Rescuers meanwhile continued plucking people from inundated Houston neighborhoods. Mayor Sylvester Turner put the number by police at more than 3,000. The Coast Guard said it also had rescued more than 3,000 by boat and air and was taking more than 1,000 calls per hour.

Chris Thorn was among the many volunteers still helping with the mass evacuation that began Sunday. He drove with a buddy from the Dallas area with their flat-bottom hunting boat to pull strangers out of the water.

“I couldn’t sit at home and watch it on TV and do nothing since I have a boat and all the tools to help,” he said.

Nearly 6,000 inmates displaced by flooding have been moved from prisons in the Houston area to other facilities in South and East Texas, according to the state Department of Criminal Justice.

A mandatory evacuation was ordered for the low-lying Houston suburb of Dickinson, home to 20,000. Police cited the city’s fragile infrastructure in the floods, limited working utilities and concern about the weather forecast.

In Houston, questions continued to swirl about why the mayor did not issue a similar evacuation order.

Turner has repeatedly defended the decision and did so again Monday, insisting that a mass evacuation of millions of people by car was a greater risk than enduring the storm.

“Both the county judge and I sat down together and decided that we were not in direct path of the storm, of the hurricane, and the safest thing to do was for people to stay put, make the necessary preparations. I have no doubt that the decision we made was the right decision.”

He added, “Can you imagine if millions of people had left the city of Houston and then tried to come back in right now?”

By Tuesday morning, more than 9,000 people were at the city’s largest shelter set up inside the George R. Brown Convention Center — which originally had an estimated capacity of 5,000.

Red Cross spokesman Lloyd Ziel said that volunteers made more space inside the center, which also was used to house Hurricane Katrina refugees from New Orleans in 2005, in part by pushing some cots closer together. A shortage of cots means some people will have to sleep on chairs or the floor.

The center settled down at night, after an occasionally chaotic day that saw thousands of evacuees arrive in the pouring rain. Officers and volunteers at times rushed to attend to those with medical needs.

Before the storm is gone, up to 20 more inches (51 centimeters) of rain could fall, National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini said Monday.

That means the flooding will get worse in the days ahead and the floodwaters will be slow to recede once Harvey finally moves on, the weather service said.

Sometime Tuesday or early Wednesday, parts of the Houston region will probably break the nearly 40-year-old U.S. record for the biggest rainfall from a tropical system — 48 inches (120 centimeters) — set by Tropical Storm Amelia in 1978 in Texas, meteorologists said.

Associated Press writers Juan Lozano and Nomaan Merchant in Houston and David Warren in Dallas contributed to this report.
A Harris County Flood Control District official says at the height of the flooding, 70 percent of the county’s 1,800 square miles, which includes the city of Houston, was covered with at least 1.5 feet of water, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.