Just days into one of the biggest storms to hit the U.S. in decades, authorities have rescued thousands of people in Houston alone. And as floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm, continue to rise across southeast Texas and neighboring Louisiana, officials expect that still thousands more evacuees will need to be sheltered in the days to come.

"This is a landmark event," Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Brock Long said at a news conference Monday. In fact, it has been such a landmark event — with more than 3 feet of rain having already hit some regions — the National Weather Service has even had to revise its traditional methods of representing storms "in order to effectively map it."

So how does one respond to a catastrophe of such historic proportions?

For authorities, that has meant summoning a rescue and evacuation effort nearly as massive. "The goal is rescue," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters Monday. "That's the major focus for the day."

Here's how that rescue effort is taking shape, sketched in a few telling — and staggering — numbers.



Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters Monday that officers have rescued roughly 2,000 people in the city — out of about 4,000 water-related calls for assistance — since the storm came ashore Friday evening.

... rescues over a 12-hour span since midnight on Monday. But that number does not include the 185 critical rescue requests in the city still outstanding as of midday.

Police hope to work through that backlog of requests by nightfall, because they say their boats are not properly equipped to conduct rescue operations in the dark.

Many of those people who required rescue will also require a place to stay — which brings us to ...



"Once we move them, we're able to extract them from different areas and rescue them, we've got to get them into shelters," Long said Monday. "This shelter mission is going to be a very heavy lift. We're anticipating over 30,000 people being placed in shelters temporarily."

Already 5,500 people are staying in shelters in Houston, and Turner only expects that number to rise in a greater metro area of some 6.5 million people.

Even in San Antonio, which was largely saved from the worst of the storm's impact, Mayor Ron Nirenberg told NPR more than 1,000 evacuees have been sheltered — a number he expects to "increase sharply," as well.

"No one will be turned away," he said. "We will do whatever is necessary. The capacity is whatever is needed."

Still, authorities have been struggling to supply those evacuees. The Red Cross initially was unable to get their trucks to one shelter, and those evacuees, without food, had McDonald's breakfast Sunday morning.

But there might not be such scarcity for long. Vice President Mike Pence told KTRH the federal government has shipped out more than 1.2 million meals and a million liters of water.



Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated the state's entire National Guard on Monday, saying roughly 12,000 guard members will be deployed to respond to Harvey. Initially, about 3,000 national and state guard members had been deployed

"It is imperative that we do everything possible to protect the lives and safety of people across the state of Texas as we continue to face the aftermath of this storm," Abbott said in a statement.

The governor noted that the guardsmen will be collaborating with FEMA and federal troops to "assist in the efforts already underway."

The U.S. Coast Guard has also been active in the response, deploying at least eight helicopters — and requesting 11 more from across the country — to conduct rescues. They say they have already rescued 100 people from the air.

"Every Coast Guard asset available" is being used to respond, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft said. "But," he cautioned, "there are conditions where it is just not safe to fly."

All told, Pence said Monday there are more than 8,500 federal personnel on the ground in the area to help state and local officials, who are leading the rescue efforts.

Even officials with the Mexican government have offered Texas assistance in its recovery from the storm, Abbott said at a news conference Monday.

The extensive state and national response was motivated partly by the immense breadth of the storm's effects, apparent in the next number.



Long expects as many as 50 counties in Texas to be affected in some form by the storm's floodwaters, a situation that he says has demanded the agency "help bolster the efforts to do swift water rescue, search and rescue over a huge county jurisdiction."

Eighteen of those counties have been granted a federal disaster declaration, a move that triggers FEMA's support.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the top administrator in the county home to Houston, noted just what the size of the storm means for local officials.

"One of the issues, of course, that makes this situation even worse is all of the surrounding counties are experiencing their own difficulties," he said at a news conference Monday, "so we're not in this alone, but we can't really help each other."

And the size of the storm means it's not just Texas that must bear its blows. Some 15-25 inches of rainfall are expected in southwest Louisiana, and President Trump declared an emergency in the state on Monday morning.



By the time the region emerges from Harvey's aftermath, Long expects nearly half a million people will have requested help. Pence said 22,000 have already registered for disaster assistance.

And it's unlikely that aftermath will lift anytime soon.

"You've got rivers and bayous that are going to be reaching crest stage later in the week in and around Houston," NPR's Debbie Elliott pointed out, citing the head of the National Weather Service. "The floodwaters are going to be slow to recede. They're going to persist."

"This is going to take us months, years to get back to normal," Emmett said, "and so any help that people can send, we would certainly appreciate that." </s> Just days into one of the biggest storms to hit the U.S. in decades, authorities have rescued thousands of people in Houston alone. And as floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm, continue to rise across southeast Texas and neighboring Louisiana, officials expect that still thousands more evacuees will need to be sheltered in the days to come.

"This is a landmark event," Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Brock Long said at a news conference Monday. In fact, it has been such a landmark event — with more than 3 feet of rain having already hit some regions — the National Weather Service has even had to revise its traditional methods of representing storms "in order to effectively map it."

So how does one respond to a catastrophe of such historic proportions?

For authorities, that has meant summoning a rescue and evacuation effort nearly as massive. "The goal is rescue," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters Monday. "That's the major focus for the day."

Here's how that rescue effort is taking shape, sketched in a few telling — and staggering — numbers.



Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters Monday that officers have rescued roughly 2,000 people in the city — out of about 4,000 water-related calls for assistance — since the storm came ashore Friday evening.

... rescues over a 12-hour span since midnight on Monday. But that number does not include the 185 critical rescue requests in the city still outstanding as of midday.

Police hope to work through that backlog of requests by nightfall, because they say their boats are not properly equipped to conduct rescue operations in the dark.

Many of those people who required rescue will also require a place to stay — which brings us to ...



"Once we move them, we're able to extract them from different areas and rescue them, we've got to get them into shelters," Long said Monday. "This shelter mission is going to be a very heavy lift. We're anticipating over 30,000 people being placed in shelters temporarily."

Already 5,500 people are staying in shelters in Houston, and Turner only expects that number to rise in a greater metro area of some 6.5 million people.

Even in San Antonio, which was largely saved from the worst of the storm's impact, Mayor Ron Nirenberg told NPR more than 1,000 evacuees have been sheltered — a number he expects to "increase sharply," as well.

"No one will be turned away," he said. "We will do whatever is necessary. The capacity is whatever is needed."

Still, authorities have been struggling to supply those evacuees. The Red Cross initially was unable to get their trucks to one shelter, and those evacuees, without food, had McDonald's breakfast Sunday morning.

But there might not be such scarcity for long. Vice President Mike Pence told KTRH the federal government has shipped out more than 1.2 million meals and a million liters of water.



Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated the state's entire National Guard on Monday, saying roughly 12,000 guard members will be deployed to respond to Harvey. Initially, about 3,000 national and state guard members had been deployed

"It is imperative that we do everything possible to protect the lives and safety of people across the state of Texas as we continue to face the aftermath of this storm," Abbott said in a statement.

The governor noted that the guardsmen will be collaborating with FEMA and federal troops to "assist in the efforts already underway."

The U.S. Coast Guard has also been active in the response, deploying at least eight helicopters — and requesting 11 more from across the country — to conduct rescues. They say they have already rescued 100 people from the air.

"Every Coast Guard asset available" is being used to respond, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft said. "But," he cautioned, "there are conditions where it is just not safe to fly."

All told, Pence said Monday there are more than 8,500 federal personnel on the ground in the area to help state and local officials, who are leading the rescue efforts.

The extensive state and national response was motivated partly by the immense breadth of the storm's effects, apparent in the next number.



Long expects as many as 50 counties in Texas to be affected in some form by the storm's floodwaters, a situation that he says has demanded the agency "help bolster the efforts to do swift water rescue, search and rescue over a huge county jurisdiction."

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the top administrator in the county home to Houston, noted just what the size of the storm means for local officials.

"One of the issues, of course, that makes this situation even worse is all of the surrounding counties are experiencing their own difficulties," he said at a news conference Monday, "so we're not in this alone, but we can't really help each other."

And the size of the storm means it's not just Texas that must bear its blows. Some 15-25 inches of rainfall are expected in southwest Louisiana, and President Trump declared an emergency in the state on Monday morning.



By the time the region emerges from Harvey's aftermath, Long expects nearly half a million people will have requested help. Pence said 22,000 have already registered for disaster assistance.

And it's unlikely that aftermath will lift anytime soon.

"You've got rivers and bayous that are going to be reaching crest stage later in the week in and around Houston," NPR's Debbie Elliott pointed out, citing the head of the National Weather Service. "The floodwaters are going to be slow to recede. They're going to persist."

"This is going to take us months, years to get back to normal," Emmett said, "and so any help that people can send, we would certainly appreciate that." </s> "We have good news," said Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District. "The water levels are going down."

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city's two major airports would be up and running again in the afternoon.

At Hermann Park, south of downtown, children glided by in strollers and wagons, joggers took in midday runs and couples walked beside cascading fountains and beneath a sparkling sun. People pulled into drive-thru restaurants and emerged from a store with groceries.

Xyrius Langston, 26, went fishing along with several family members at a pond in the Houston suburb of Missouri City.

"I've been waiting to go fishing for a while now," he said. "Once the water went down this morning, we were out."

At the same time, many thousands of Houston-area homes are under water and could stay that way for days or weeks. And Lindner cautioned that homes near at least one swollen bayou could still get flooded.

Officials said 911 centres in the Houston area are getting more than 1,000 calls an hour from people seeking help. About 10,000 more National Guard troops are being deployed to Texas, bringing the total to 24,000, Gov. Greg Abbot said.

Altogether, more than 1,000 homes in Texas were destroyed and close to 50,000 damaged, and over 32,000 people were in shelters across the state, emergency officials reported.

"This is going to be an incredibly large disaster," Brock Long, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in Washington. "We're not going to know the true cost for years to come. ... But it's going to be huge."

Maricedalia Osorio, who is living the U.S. without permission, was staying with her seven children at a shelter set up at Houston's NRG Center. She went there only after Houston authorities assured her she would not be asked about her immigration status.

"They know that we have no house," she said of her children, who were waiting in line to eat. "I said, 'We are OK, we are together. We are going to get back everything.'"

Confirmed deaths from the storm include a married couple who drowned after their pickup truck was swept away while they were on the phone with a 911 dispatcher asking for help, officials said.

Others among the dead include a woman whose body was discovered floating in Beaumont, a man who tried to swim across a flooded road, and a woman who died after she and her young daughter were swept into a drainage canal in Beaumont. The child was rescued clinging to her dead mother, authorities said.

When Harvey paid its return visit to land overnight, it hit near Cameron, Louisiana, about 72 kilometres from Port Arthur.

Port Arthur found itself increasingly isolated as flood waters swamped most major roads out of the city and spilled into a storm shelter with about 100 people inside. Motiva Enterprises closed its Port Arthur refinery, the largest in the nation, because of flooding.

Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman posted on his Facebook page: "city is underwater right now but we are coming!" He urged residents to move to higher ground and avoid getting trapped in attics.

More than 500 people — along with dozens of dogs, cats, a lizard and a monkey — took shelter at the Max Bowl bowling alley in Port Arthur after firefighters popped the lock in the middle of the night, said the establishment's general manager, Jeff Tolliver.

"The monkey was a little surprising, but we're trying to help," he said.

In Orange, Texas, about 48 kilometres east of Beaumont, residents of a retirement home surrounded by thigh-deep water were rescued by National Guardsmen and wildlife officers, who carried them from the second floor and put them aboard an airboat.

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.

Harvey's five straight days of rain totalled close to 132 centimetres, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S. </s> Tropical storm Harvey lashed Houston over the weekend, leading to heavy flooding across the city. Several people are reported to have died during the storm and subsequent flooding with many more people needing urgent care and shelter. Texas governor Greg Abbott said the response to the disaster was just beginning in the city </s> The news out of Texas continues to worsen. Thousands have been rescued from inundated homes in Houston and surrounding towns and cities, but authorities have confirmed at least six flood-related deaths in America’s fourth-largest city and another in coastal Rockport as flood waters continue to rise.

Forecasters say the storm could pick up strength and hammer the Houston area again, as Dayton — which is less than 40 miles east of Texas’ most populous city — already is nearing 40 inches of rain since Friday.

“This is going to be a long haul,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, said during an afternoon news conference from Corpus Christi. Added Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, “We need to recognize that there’s going to be a new normal — a new and different normal for this entire region.” He noted that the entire 12,000-strong Texas National Guard has been deployed.

The rain continues to fall in many parts of southeast Texas and into Louisiana as the center of the storm has moved less than 75 miles since it made landfall Friday as Category 4 Hurricane Harvey. Some 11 trillion gallons of water already has fallen in the area, 15-20 more inches expected as the storm continues to churn, at 2 mph for the next 48 hours. Many areas are or will be under multiple feet of water, prompting rescues by authorities and good Samaritans in private boats and other watercraft. The Army Corps of Engineers has begun releasing water from two local dams.

FEMA administrator Brock Long put the disaster into perspective with a single line during the presser: “We are going to be here for several years helping you guys recover.” The federal emergency agency said earlier today that more than 5,500 people already are in shelters, and it expects that number to reach 30,000 eventually. Long added that trucks already are arriving with 2 million meals and 2 million liters of water, along with other essential supplies.

“The most important thing we have is our lives,” said Abbott, who has made a state disaster declaration for 54 counties. “And to be able to get through the storm the way we did and save so many lives is nothing short of remarkable. … There is a reality we have to come to grips with, and that is we are just beginning the process of responding to this storm. We are still involved in the search-and-rescue process. Our No. 1 goal — from Corpus Christi all the way to east of Houston is still protecting and preserving life and rescuing every person that we can find.”

He added, “I would have to grade the federal government’s response as an A-plus. This is, if not the largest, it has to be categorized as one of the largest disasters America has ever faced, and to see the swift response from the federal government is pretty much unparalleled.”

Cornyn said earlier: “We’re trying to save people’s lives. We’re trying to make sure they have a place to live, safe water to drink, sewage, electricity and like. But this is going to be a long challenge.”

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will visit the region on Tuesday. </s> HOUSTON – There are at least nine deaths in the Houston area resulting from Tropical Storm Harvey.

A family of six is believed to have died after drowning in a white van Sunday afternoon while trying to escape the floods of Hurricane Harvey, relatives tell KHOU 11 News. It is thus far the single deadliest incident resulting from the storm. It happened while crossing a bridge on Green River Road in Greens Bayou.

On Saturday, a spokesman for the Houston emergency operations center said a woman appeared to have gotten out of her vehicle in high water on Werrington near S. Gaston in southwest Houston. She was found by neighbors about 30 yards away from her vehicle. Norman says she was pronounced dead at the scene by a doctor who was in the area, according to the Associated Press.

The sheriff’s office confirmed Monday afternoon a 60-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on her home as she slept. The incident happened in the 17400 block of Louis Lane in Porter. The victim's husband told authorities he went to get help after the tree crashed into the home because he could not get to her. When authorities got into the home, they found the woman was already dead.

A man between the ages of 60 and 70 reportedly drowned around 11:30 p.m. Monday night. Montgomery County officials said the man was seen trying to swim across the flood waters located at Spring Park Ridge and SH 99. Witnesses tried to help the man after he went into distress. They were however unsuccessful.

Outside of Houston, the first death from Harvey was confirmed in a coastal community in Aransas County. That person died in a fire at a home during the hurricane. Harvey made landfall in Texas on Friday night as a Category 4 hurricane, but it has since been downgraded to a tropical storm as it weakens while inland.

WATER RESCUES: HPD says more than 2,000 rescued from flood waters </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. </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.
At least eight people have died in the American state of Texas with 30,000 residents in the city of Houston expected to seek temporary shelter.