The powerful eye wall of Harvey reached land by 11 p.m. ET between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, Texas, with winds of 130 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

It is the first Category 4 hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Charley in 2004.

Millions of residents along the south Texas coast saw hurricane-force winds that knocked down trees, power poles and signs.

First responders are yet to assess the impact that the extremely powerful hurricane has caused over Texas in the first hours since landfall but forecasters have said it will be devastating and leave areas "uninhabitable for weeks or months."

#Harvey made landfall at 10 PM CDT as a category 4 hurricane near Rockport, Texas, with max winds of 130 mph and min pressure of 938 mb. pic.twitter.com/98y5wpKmBw — NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) August 26, 2017 Harvey has the "highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of damage," said Brock Long, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As Harvey deluges Texas, coastal cities could see 13 feet of storm surge and as much as 40 inches of rain by Wednesday. Rain is blown past palm trees as Hurricane Harvey makes landfall Friday in Corpus Christi, Texas. -- There have been reports of structural and building problems in Rockport, Aransas Pass, and Port Aransas, Texas, said Tom Beal, a meteorologist with National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi. He anticipated that the hurricane would clear that area sometime about 4 a.m. ET Saturday. -- The hurricane center said a tide gauge in Port Lavaca, Texas reported storm surge of 5.6 feet. -- At least 104,000 customers of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) electric system lost power just at Harvey made landfall Friday, the corporation said on Twitter. -- Rockport, Texas, officials are advising residents who refuse to evacuate to write their names and Social Security number on their forearm, Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios told CNN. Rios said it will "help out first responders should they find a body." -- President Donald Trump, who will visit the area next week, has signed a disaster declaration for the state. A tree blocks a street as Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Corpus Christi, Texas on Friday. In Rockport, firefighters were "hunkered down" in the fire station as the eye of the storm was over them. Roy Laird, assistant chief with the Rockport Volunteer Fire Department, told CNN they were anxious to get out and check the city for damage but it could be hours before they will be able to safely leave the station. "We had probably 140 mph winds earlier. It was howling," Laird added. Joey Walker, 25, works with the Galveston Island Beach Patrol and is riding out the storm from a house on Galveston Island. He posted video of near-white out conditions overlooking Stewart Beach. Hurricane Harvey isn't playing around, can't even see the beach! 🌀👀 #storm #hurricane #wind #rain #powerful #hurricaneharvey #windy Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said anyone not leaving should plan to stay off the roads once the storm starts. "People need to know, this is not a one-, two-day event and done," Turner said. The storm will stall and dump rain on South Texas and parts of Louisiana into the middle of next week, forecasters predicted. </s> Harvey continued to intensify as it steered for the Texas coast, with the forecasters saying early Friday that it had strengthened to a Category 2 storm.The hurricane with the potential for up to 3 feet of rain, 125 mph winds and 12-foot storm surges could be the fiercest such storm to hit the United States in almost a dozen years. Forecasters labeled Harvey a "life-threatening storm" that posed a "grave risk" as millions of people braced for a prolonged battering that could swamp dozens of counties more than 100 miles inland.Landfall was predicted for late Friday or early Saturday between Port O'Connor and Matagorda Bay, a 30-mile (48-kilometer) stretch of coastline about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Corpus Christi.Harvey grew quickly Thursday from a tropical depression into a Category 1 hurricane. Early Friday, the National Hurricane Center reported it had become a Category 2 hurricane. Fueled by warm Gulf of Mexico waters, it was projected to become a major Category 3 hurricane.The last storm of that category to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 in Florida.Superstorm Sandy, which pummeled New York and New Jersey in 2012, never had the high winds and had lost tropical status by the time it struck. But it was devastating without formally being called a major hurricane."We're forecasting continuing intensification right up until landfall," National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.All seven Texas counties on the coast from Corpus Christi to the western end of Galveston Island have ordered mandatory evacuations of tens of thousands of residents from all low-lying areas. In four of those counties, officials ordered their entire county evacuated and warned those who stayed behind that no one could be guaranteed rescue.Voluntary evacuations have been urged for Corpus Christi itself and for the Bolivar Peninsula, a sand spit near Galveston where many homes were washed away by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike in 2008.Texas officials expressed concern that not as many people are evacuating compared with previous storms."A lot of people are taking this storm for granted thinking it may not pose much of a danger to them," Gov. Greg Abbott told Houston television station KPRC. "Please heed warnings and evacuate as soon as possible."Abbott has activated about 700 members of the state National Guard ahead of Hurricane Harvey making landfall.As of 4 a.m. CDT Friday, Harvey was centered about 180 miles (290 kilometers) southeast of Corpus Christi and was moving northwest near 9 mph (15 kph) with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph (165 kph).Harvey's effect would be broad. The hurricane center said storm surges as much as 3 feet could be expected as far north as Morgan City, Louisiana, some 400 miles away from the anticipated landfall.And once it comes ashore, the storm is expected to stall, dumping copious amounts of rain for days in areas like flood-prone Houston, the nation's fourth most-populous city, and San Antonio.State transportation officials were considering when to turn all evacuation routes from coastal areas into one-way traffic arteries headed inland. John Barton, a former deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, predicted state officials will do this before the storm hits, but said timing and determining where to use it are the key factors. Storms change paths and if contraflow starts too early, supplies such as extra gasoline needed to support impacted areas can't get in, he said.This would be the first hurricane for Bethany Martinez, who is pregnant and has two boys, 5 and 6, who were with grandparents in Austin. Asked about her demeanor, Martinez replied: "Afraid."She's a front desk clerk at a Holiday Inn Express at Port Aransas. "We are closing down," Martinez said of the 74-room hotel a couple of blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. It was about two-thirds full before all guests were cleared out.Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi was airlifting at least 10 critically ill, mostly premature infants from its neonatal intensive care unit to Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth. They were expected to arrive by early Friday. Cook transport director Debbie Boudreaux said the infants were being moved inland for fear that power outages might disable their ventilators.Harvey would be the first significant hurricane to hit Texas since Ike in September 2008 brought winds of 110 mph (177 kph) to the Galveston and Houston areas and inflicted $22 billion in damage. It would be the first big storm along the middle Texas coast since Hurricane Claudette in 2003 caused $180 million in damage.It's taking aim at the same vicinity as Hurricane Carla, the largest Texas hurricane on record. Carla came ashore in 1961 with wind gusts estimated at 175 mph and inflicted more than $300 million in damage. The storm killed 34 people and forced about 250,000 people to evacuate.White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was "briefed and will continue to be updated as the storm progresses."In Houston, one of the nation's most flood-prone cities, Bill Pennington prepared his one-story home for what he expected would be its third invasion of floodwaters in as many years and the fifth since 1983."We know how to handle it. We'll handle it again," Pennington said he told his nervous 9-year-old son.Dozens were in lines Thursday at a Corpus Christi Sam's Club, at home improvement stores and supermarkets. Alex Garcia bought bottled water, bread and other basics in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land after dropping his daughter off at college. He said grocery items were likely more available in Houston than back home in Corpus Christi, where Garcia, a beer distributor salesman, said stores were "crazy.""We'll be selling lots of beer," he laughed.In Galveston, where a 1900 hurricane went down as the worst in U.S. history, City Manager Brian Maxwell said he was anticipating street flooding and higher-than-normal tides."Obviously being on an island, everybody around here is kind of used to it." </s> As Hurricane Harvey gains strength, residents along the Texas coast aren’t taking any chances; they’re filling sandbags, stocking up on water and boarding up windows.

In Corpus Christi, where Harvey could make landfall and Mayor Joe McComb has issued a voluntary evacuation order, Walmart shelves were clearing quickly, as the city canceled Friday’s dockets in city court and provided self-serve sandbags to residents.

Port Aransas on Mustang Island and nearby Portland issued mandatory evacuation orders. Houston, meanwhile, has canceled the first day of school on Monday.

Harvey is rapidly strengthening and is forecast to become a Category 3 hurricane with winds of at least 111 mph by the time it hits the middle Texas coast late Friday or early Saturday, the hurricane center said Thursday. After hitting Corpus Christi, the storm is expected to stall over the state, forecasters say.

Hurricane-force winds are a concern as the storm builds strength in the Gulf of Mexico, and a potential deluge and subsequent flooding may be a big danger as well, according to meteorologists.

“Harvey is likely to bring multiple hazards, including heavy rainfall, storm surge and possible hurricane conditions to portions of the Texas coast beginning Friday,” the National Weather Service said.

“Those conditions can happen far away from the landfall,” hurricane specialist John Cangialosi said Thursday afternoon.

People shouldn’t focus on where the eye will come ashore but should listen to local authorities and be prepared for rain through the weekend and possibly into next week, he added.

At 5 p.m. ET, Harvey was a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds. It was about 305 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, and was moving north-northwest at 10 mph.

It’s expected to bring 15 to 25 inches of rain to the Texas coast, with isolated instances where rainfall totals could reach 35 inches, the hurricane center said, bumping up the predicted totals by 5 inches since a previous advisory.

Rainfall amounts increase exponentially when a storm moves at a slower speed, as Harvey has been doing.

The National Hurricane Center has warned Harvey will slow down when it reaches the coast and there will be days of heavy rain and flooding across portions of Texas. Louisiana and Mexico will also be affected by the storm.

Compounding potential problems is the tidal cycle. If peak storm surge arrives during high tide, parts of the coast could see 2 to 8 feet of flooding, with the potential of 6 to 12 feet between Padre Island National Seashore and Sargent, Texas.

“Historically, water from tropical cyclones is more deadly” than from damage done by the powerful winds of the storm, Cangialosi said.

While it has been nine years since Texas last saw a hurricane, the state is no stranger to devastating flooding from tropical systems. In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison was a multibillion-dollar disaster for the state, specifically Houston. Allison became nearly stationary for days, dropping more than 30 inches of rain across portions of the city.

A hurricane warning is in effect from Port Mansfield near Mexico to Sargent, with a storm surge warning stretching from Port Mansfield to High Island in Galveston County.

Harvey could be the first hurricane to hit Texas since 2008 when Hurricane Ike smashed the coast near Galveston. The storm killed 21 people in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, and caused widespread destruction.

‘It scares the hell out of people’

As Harvey churned toward Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster Wednesday in 30 counties along the Gulf of Mexico. The governor’s action allows agencies to “quickly deploy resources for the emergency response.”

“Texans believe in taking action and always being prepared in the event of an emergency,” Abbott said. “That is why I am taking every precaution prior to … Harvey making landfall.”

Energy companies are evacuating personnel from off-shore production platforms, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced.

In San Antonio, Mayor Ron Nirenberg issued a local disaster declaration warned residents about going out in the rain.

Students and staff at the Texas A&M campus at Corpus Christi are under a mandatory evacuation order. The campus will be closed starting Thursday, according to the university’s website.

People around Corpus Christi started stocking up Wednesday on food, bottled water and other essentials.

“We know that if anything as far as flooding happens, that’s the one thing everyone runs to, we have to have water,” Mariah Barter told CNN affiliate KZTV. “It’s a big deal. It scares the hell out of people. It’s better to be prepared.”

Others in South Texas readied sandbags, fueled up power generators and bought plywood to board up their windows, CNN affiliate KRIS reported.

At a Thursday afternoon White House briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump has been briefed on Harvey. She downplayed concerns about preparedness, given that there is no permanent Homeland Security secretary, and said the White House is in “great shape,” given that chief of staff John Kelly was previously in charge of the office. </s> Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Rockport Friday evening as a catastrophic Category 4 storm with winds around 130 mph.

Harvey made its second landfall along the northeastern shore of Copano Bay, Texas just after midnight. As of 3 a.m., the National Hurricane Center says Harvey is a Category 2 Hurricane.

There have been reports of damage in the area, including the collapse of a building where several people were trapped.

Reporters in the Omni Hotel in nearby Corpus Christi reported they could feel the building swaying.

The impacts of a Category 4 hurricane (130-156 mph) can include: Catastrophic damage to homes and buildings; mobile homes are destroyed; most large trees are snapped or uprooted; some roads impassable; large areas without power and communication outages.

It's also shaping up as just about a worst-case scenario storm with possible flooding from two different directions.

Harvey is moving slowly and will be stuck over the Texas coast through the middle of next week, which means rainfall measured in feet, not inches.

"This is going to be a very major disaster," said Gov. Greg Abbott, who declared a State of Disaster for 30 counties and requested 700 National Guard members to be activated.

FEMA granted Governor Abbott's request for a Presidential Disaster Declaration Friday night as Harvey made landfall on the Texas coast.

We're already feeling the effects of Harvey in the Greater Houston Area with a flurry of tornado warnings. There are reports of damage in some areas, including Galveston and the Matagorda County town of Sargent. There have been no reports of injuries.

In Houston, we could see rainfall of 15 to 20 inches with isolated areas getting up to 30 inches of rainfall by next Wednesday.

"It's possible that some spots could get up to 30 inches of rain -- it won't be everywhere -- but it will be in spots and so those spots that get that much rain, clearly, they will have a very significant flood threat," said KHOU 11 Chief Meteorologist David Paul.

Except for our coastal communities, Harvey's winds and storm surge will not be an issue for Houston. The main concern inland will be rain. Houston is on the "dirty side" of the storm, which means Harvey's outer bands will bring heavy downpours and storms to southeast Texas while Corpus gets hit by the hurricane force winds.

Get an inside look at Harvey from the Hurricane Hunters

Tornado touches down in Matagorda County, curfew in place

LIST: Evacuation orders in some coastal cities due to Harvey

NICU babies flown out of storm zone to North Texas

There is also concern about the forecast track. Currently Harvey is forecast to slowly make its way north along the Texas coast and arrive in Houston as a tropical storm early next week. This means Houston could get even more heavy rain Tuesday into Wednesday, especially if Harvey continues to move slowly. A Flash Flood Watch is in effect.

As many as 1.25 million Texans could lose power from the storm, according to forecast models at Texas A&M University.

Several counties have already called for mandatory and voluntary evacuations. Locally, Galveston County Judge Mark Henry has issued a voluntary evacuation for residents on Bolivar Peninsula effective Friday, Aug. 25 at 8 a.m. This order includes the unincorporated areas of Port Bolivar, Crystal Beach, High Island and Gilchrist. Residents who rely on medical assistance or those who cannot go without power for an extended period of time are encouraged to leave.

The Brazoria County judge has issued a mandatory evacuation for coastal communities along the Gulf side of the Intracoastal canal. The evacuation is due to an expected 6-10 foot storm surge. There is a voluntary evacuation for low-lying coastal areas inland of the Intracoastal Waterway.

LIST: Tap here for the list of current evacuation orders

WHEN TO EVACUATE: Should I stay or should I go?

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Matagorda and Jackson Counties.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Brazoria County.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Brazoria County, Chambers, Fort Bend County, Galveston County, Harris County, Waller County, Wharton County.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for Austin County, Colorado County.

A Tornado Watch is in effect until 2 a.m. Saturday for Brazoria, Calhoun, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Jackson, Matagorda & Wharton counties.

A Flash Flood Warning is in effect until 6:30 a.m. for Austin, Brazoria, Colorado, Fort Bend, Jackson, Matagorda, Waller, Washington and Wharton counties.

A Flash Flood Watch is in effect until until 7 p.m. Tuesday for Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Harris, Jackson, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Waller, Washington & Wharton counties.

A Flash Flood Watch is in effect until until 7 a.m. Sunday for Colorado, Jackson, Matagorda & Wharton counties.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared a State of Disaster for 30 counties in anticipation of Tropical Storm Harvey making landfall. County Judge Hebert declared a local state of disaster for Fort Bend County.

President Trump ordered federal aid Friday to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by Hurricane Harvey.

The governor has also activated 700 members of the Texas Army and Air National Guards and Texas State Guard to areas impacted by Hurricane Harvey. </s> Hurricane Harvey settled over southeast Texas early Saturday, lashing the state's Gulf Coast with damaging winds and dumping torrents of rain over hundreds of kilometres of coastline that braced for what forecasters predicted would be life-threatening storm surges — basically walls of water moving inland.

The fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade made landfall the previous night about 48 kilometres northeast of Corpus Christi as a Category 4 storm with 209 km/h winds. It gradually weakened over the next several hours and by 5 a.m. ET forecasters said the maximum sustained winds had slowed to around 155 km/h, with higher gusts.
• Atlantic hurricane season expected to be stormier than normal
• Get the latest updates from the U.S. National Hurricane Center

Harvey's approach sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing inland, hoping to escape the wrath of a menacing storm that threatens not only the coast but a wide swath of Texas that is home to oil refineries, chemical plants and dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city.

No deaths were immediately confirmed in the hours after Harvey's arrival, but officials noted emergency crews couldn't get out in many places due to high winds. Melissa Munguia, deputy emergency management co-ordinator in Nueces County, which includes Corpus Christi, said early Saturday that it could be hours before crews could fully assess the damage in coastal communities.

Fuelled by warm Gulf of Mexico waters, Harvey grew rapidly, accelerating from a Category 1 early Friday morning to a Category 4 by evening. Its transformation from an unnamed storm to a life-threatening behemoth took only 56 hours, an incredibly fast intensification.

Harvey came ashore as 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. Based on the atmospheric pressure, Harvey ties for the 18th strongest hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. since 1851 and the ninth strongest in Texas.

Forecasters said early Saturday morning that Harvey is slowly moving inland over south Texas.

"Catastrophic flooding expected over the next few days due to heavy rainfall," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a statement. "

The storm is expected to weaken, forecasters said, with Harvey "likely to become a tropical storm later today."

But even if the storm weakens, serious risks remain.

In Corpus Christi, the major city closest to the storm's centre, wind whipped palm trees and stinging sheets of horizontal rain slapped against hotels and office buildings along the city's seawall as the storm made landfall.

Boats bobbed violently in the marina. It was too dark to tell whether any boats had broken their moorings.

Rain and storm surge were among the biggest worries for officials, and the hurricane centre said some areas of southern Texas have already had almost 25 centimetres of rain, with more expected.

Corpus Christi officials worked through the night to deal with the storm, warning the public of the possible risks, including storm surge, high winds and flooding.

More than 211,000 consumers were without power across the Gulf Coast, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said early Saturday morning.

The majority of those affected are in Corpus Christi, where the storm had downed power lines.

On Friday, the police chief in the coastal city said staff are ready to respond but will have a reduced presence in areas experiencing high winds, where the situation could be unsafe for officers. The fire chief said they, too, were ready, though some equipment was pre-emptively moved out of a low-lying area.

Emergency personnel in the coastal community Aransas County said Friday that they are assessing damage reports from Hurricane Harvey as they are able.

Officials in Aransas Pass say the Harbor Master Building along its coast has been destroyed. The Aransas Pass Police Department posted a video on its Facebook page of the building folding up from the high-speed winds.
• Click here to see a Facebook video of wind battering the Aransas Pass harbour

Rockport Volunteer Fire Department spokeswoman Gillian Cox told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that the roof of Rockport's high school has partially caved in. But Cox said social media posts indicating the school has "disappeared" are inaccurate.

Rockport City Manager Kevin Carruth told the newspaper that the courthouse in the city, which is about 48 kilometres northeast of Corpus Christi, also has sustained major damage. Carruth says that a cargo trailer is halfway in the building.

Before the storm arrived, home and business owners raced to nail plywood over windows and fill sandbags. Steady traffic filled the highways leaving Corpus Christi, but there were no apparent jams. In Houston, where mass evacuations can include changing major highways to a one-way vehicle flow, authorities left traffic patterns unchanged.

Just hours before the projected landfall, the governor and Houston leaders issued conflicting statements on evacuation.

After Gov. Greg Abbott urged more people to flee, Houston authorities told people to remain in their homes and recommended no widespread evacuations.

In a Friday press conference that addressed Houston officials' decision to not have a voluntary or mandatory evacuation, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said there might be a "greater danger" in having people who don't need to be evacuated on roads that could flood.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said that because the hurricane was not taking direct aim at Houston, the city's primary concern was heavy flooding.

"We are not having a hurricane," said Emmett, the top elected official for the county, which encompasses Houston. "We are having a rain event." </s> TEXAS — As heavy rain and gusty winds move in over Texas, coastal residents are deciding whether to flee their homes or to stay put and brace for a potentially life-threatening hurricane.

Hurricane Harvey is “dangerously approaching the Texas Coast” Friday and is expected to bring as many as 35 inches of rainfall, destructive waves and flood waters that could reach heights of 6-12 feet above ground level along the state’s coast, the National Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters say Harvey is on track to become a Category 3 hurricane with winds of at least 111 mph by the time it hits the middle Texas coast later Friday or early Saturday.

After hitting Corpus Christi, the storm is expected to stall over the state, forecasters say.

— Harvey strengthened early Friday, becoming a Category 2 hurricane with winds up to 105 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

— Isolated tornadoes are possible across portions of the middle and upper Texas coast on Friday, the service said.

— Texas Governor Greg Abbott has requested 700 National Guard members to be activated.

— The Ports of Corpus Christi and Galveston are closed.

— Three Galveston-based cruise ships in the Gulf of Mexico diverted to safer water.

‘I’m trying to be strong’

The threat of Harvey became evident Thursday when several counties on the Texas coast issued evacuation orders and an exodus of residents began.

Drivers sat bumper-to-bumper with highways backed up for miles.

Rose Yepez told CNN it took her twice as long as normal to drive from Corpus Christi to San Antonio. Yepez, who was traveling to the Texas Hill Country, said traffic was constantly slowing down and coming to a stop during the 140-mile drive.

A mix of cars and city buses taking groups of adults and children carrying backpacks with their belongings jammed the roads for hours.

“I’m shaking inside, but for them, I’m trying to be strong,” a Corpus Christi woman who was waiting with her two daughters to board a bus out of the city told CNN affiliate KRIS.

Ambulances stayed busy overnight while ten critically ill babies were evacuated from a Corpus Christi hospital, the Cook Children’s Hospital in Forth Worth said in a statement.

The babies boarded several medical flights to North Texas ahead of the storm, officials said.

Workers at 39 offshore petroleum production platforms and an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico were also evacuated Thursday, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said.

But first responders like Brittany Fowler have no other option than to stay behind and wait for the storm.

“Hopefully it doesn’t do any damage but if it does we’ve prepared,” Fowler, a firefighter in Corpus Christi, wrote on Instagram.

Her family helped by boarding up windows and doors at her home. She bought plenty of water, food and a small power generator.

Unlike Fowler, Corey Davis was free to go but opted to stay, even as Harvey’s winds started blowing Thursday night. Instead of packing, she and her family were climbing up a tall latter on the side of their Port O’Connor home securing plywood over windows.

“I’m scared so I’m doing everything that I can to protect (this) little place down here…” Davis told CNN affiliate KTRK. “And hope and pray for the best.” </s> As heavy rain and gusty winds move in over Texas, coastal residents were deciding Friday morning whether to flee or to stay put and brace for a potentially life-threatening storm.

Hurricane Harvey was “dangerously approaching the Texas Coast” and expected to bring as much as 35 inches of rain and storm-surge flooding that could reach a depth of 6 to 12 feet along the coast, the National Hurricane Center said.

Conditions are “expected to deteriorate through the day,” the center said. “Preparations along the middle Texas coast should be rushed to completion this morning.”

Forecasters say Harvey is on track to become a Category 3 hurricane with winds of at least 111 mph by the time it makes landfall around Corpus Christi late Friday or early Saturday.

It’s then expected to stall over the state, broadening the flood threat, forecasters said.

“All indications from the hurricane center are that this is going to be the first major hurricane the nation has dealt with since 2005,” FEMA Director Brock Long said.

— Harvey strengthened early Friday, becoming a Category 2 hurricane with winds up to 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

— Isolated tornadoes are possible Friday across portions of the middle and upper Texas coast, the service said.

— Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has requested the activation of 700 National Guard members.

— The Ports of Corpus Christi and Galveston are closed.

— Three Galveston-based cruise ships in the Gulf of Mexico diverted to safer water.

“Texas is about to have a very significant disaster,” Long, the FEMA chief, said, stressing that people need to heed evacuation warnings.

Those who stay should “elevate and get into a structure that can withstand potentially Category 3 winds from a hurricane,” he said.

“The bottom line message is, right now, if people have not heeded the warning, again, their window to do so is closing,” Long said. “If they refuse to heed the warning, that’s on them.”

Long said he is “very worried” about storm surge, or “wind-driven water,” slamming coastal areas, saying it has the “highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of damage.”

A “significant inland flood event over many counties” is expected, he warned.

“Over the next five days, we’re going to see copious amounts of rainfall, up to 25 inches, possibly, in some areas, with isolated higher amounts,” he said. “This is going to be a slow-developing major disaster event for the state of Texas.”

FEMA has pre-positioned incident management teams, as well as life-saving and life-sustaining commodities, and search-and-rescue teams in Texas, Long said.

Long said FEMA is “fully engaged” with the White House, as Harvey is poised to deliver a critical test of President Donald Trump’s abilities as commander-in-chief.

“I think we’ll be looking at the potential request for presidential disaster declarations coming up from Gov. Abbott,” Long said. “The President has the ability, has the authority to sign off on those to mobilize our support to the state governments.”

Harvey is also causing concern in New Orleans, where heavy rain could usher in as much as 20 inches of rain through early next week and overwhelm the city’s already-compromised drainage system.

‘I’m trying to be strong’

The threat of Harvey became evident Thursday when several counties on the Texas coast issued evacuation orders — and an exodus of residents began.

Drivers sat bumper-to-bumper, with highways backed up for miles.

Rose Yepez told CNN it took her twice as long as usual to drive 140 miles from Corpus Christi to San Antonio, en route to Texas Hill Country.

Private vehicles — along with city buses packed with adults and children carrying backpacks — jammed roads for hours.

“I’m shaking inside, but for them, I’m trying to be strong,” a Corpus Christi woman who was waiting with her two daughters to board a bus out of town told CNN affiliate KRIS.

Ambulances stayed busy overnight, and 10 critically ill babies were evacuated to North Texas on medical flights from a Corpus Christi hospital, the Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth said in a statement.

Workers at 39 offshore petroleum production platforms and an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico also evacuated Thursday, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said.

Meantime, first responders, like Brittany Fowler, stayed behind and waited for the storm.

“Hopefully it doesn’t do any damage, but if it does, we’ve prepared,” Fowler, a firefighter in Corpus Christi, wrote on Instagram.

Fowler’s family helped by boarding up windows and doors at her home, and she bought plenty of water, food and a small power generator.

Corey Davis, by contrast, was free to go — but opted to stay put, even as Harvey’s winds started blowing Thursday night. Instead of packing, she and her relatives took turns climbing a tall ladder to secure plywood over windows at their Port O’Connor home.

“I’m scared, so I’m doing everything that I can to protect (this) little place down here,” Davis told CNN affiliate KTRK, “and hope and pray for the best.” </s> As the sun rose Saturday, Texans who rode out the most powerful hurricane to hit the United States in a decade ventured out to witness the full scale of damage as Hurricane Harvey lumbered on in what was “now turning into a deadly inland event.”

The storm, which blasted ashore as a Category 4 around 11 p.m. ET Friday, between Port Aransas and Port O’Connor, was a Category 1 by mid-morning Saturday, packing winds of 80 mph as it plodded northwest at 6 mph. Coastal cities remained in danger of a potentially deadly 13-foot storm surge, with places even far inland predicted to get as much as 40 inches of rain through Wednesday.

Harvey wielded the “highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of damage,” Brock Long, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had warned.

— Harvey’s impact will be devastating and leave areas “uninhabitable for weeks or months,” forecasters said.

— Even though Harvey had made landfall and weakened, it was still a dangerous storm and “turning into a deadly inland event,” the FEMA chief tweeted.

— More than 213,000 customers were without power around 7:30 a.m. ET, on the Texas Gulf Coast, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said, amid reports of downed power lines and trees.

— Almost 10 inches of rain was reported by 5 a.m. ET at a few locations in southeast Texas, the National Weather Service said.

— A tide gauge in Port Lavaca, Texas, reported storm surge of 6.4 feet, the hurricane center said.

— Structural and building problems were reported in Rockport, Aransas Pass, and Port Aransas, Texas, said Tom Beal, a meteorologist with National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi.

— President Donald Trump tweeted early Saturday that he’s “closely monitoring” Harvey from Camp David. Trump, who plans to visit the storm zone next week, has signed a disaster declaration for Texas.

— Rockport’s mayor had advised residents who refused to evacuate to write their names and Social Security numbers on their forearms to “help out first responders should they find a body.”

Firefighters in Rockport “hunkered down” in their station as the eye of the storm passed over the coastal city of about 9,000 residents.

Firefighters were anxious to get out and survey the damage, though they knew it could be hours before they’d be able to safely venture outdoors, Roy Laird, assistant chief with the Rockport Volunteer Fire Department, told CNN early Saturday.

“We had probably 140-mph winds earlier. It was howling,” Laird added.

For hours, Karl Hattman and his family listened to “what sounded like a freight train” roar outside their Rockport home. When the fury calmed, they headed out into the darkness to find many trees down, debris blocking their driveway and Hattman’s vehicle damaged by flying roof tiles.

“We are very concerned to see what (Harvey) has been done when it lights out in the morning,” Hattman said.

Joey Walker, 25, rode out the storm from a house on Galveston Island. The Galveston Island Beach Patrol employee posted video of near-white out conditions overlooking Stewart Beach.

As Harvey continues to douse Texas with heavy rain, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner urged drivers to stay off the roads.

“People need to know, this is not a one-, two-day event and done,” he said.

The storm is expected to stall and dump rain on South Texas and parts of Louisiana into the middle of next week, forecasters predicted. </s> A tropical depression that formed in the Gulf of Mexico has now attained the status of a hurricane. According to the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Harvey has reached wind speeds of more than 80 mph as of Thursday afternoon. The Center has also forecast that Hurricane Harvey will hit the Texas Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane as it intensifies further. If the forecast does turn out to be true, it will make Harvey the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade. The last major storm in the region was Hurricane Wilma that hit the U.S. back in October 2005, the Washington Post reports.

With the threat of Hurricane Harvey looming large, the National Hurricane Center also issued a hurricane warning for a 280-mile long stretch of the Texas coast. The center has also warned about the possibility of some areas getting as much as 25 inches of rain over the course of the next week. As of now, Hurricane Harvey is part of a slow moving storm system which has lead to heightened concerns of heavy rainfall and subsequent waterlogging and flooding. Some areas in Texas could also see dangerous flash floods. A statement issued by hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski of Accuweather read;

Another Accuweather weather expert Marshall Moss has predicted that the impact caused by Hurricane Harvey would be of “tremendous” nature and that it will cause severe damage to life and property across the region.

People and businesses living in the path of the hurricane have started preparing for the worse. Petroleum companies ExxonMobil, Shell and Anadarko Petroleum have started evacuating their workers from the region. People living on South Padre Island have started filling sandbags to protect their homes and businesses.

A hurricane watch is in effect for most of coastal Texas — from Port Mansfield to Luis Pass. There are also concerns about storm surges that could range from 5 to 7 feet in height. Owing to these concerns, residents living along the upper Texas coastline have been asked to move inland. People living in low-lying areas have also been directed to seek higher ground.

The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott has directed the State Operations Center to raise its readiness level and has already declared a state of emergency. While it is not possible to correctly predict the behavior of hurricanes once they hit land, current computer models reveal that Hurricane Harvey will make landfall on Friday night — somewhere between Port Mansfield and San Luis Pass.

In case you happen to live in the path of the hurricane, now is the time you started preparing to keep yourselves and your family safe.
In anticipation of Hurricane Harvey, residents from Corpus Christi to Galveston, Texas, and workers from Gulf of Mexico oil platforms are evacuating the region. The storm makes landfall between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor as a Category 4 hurricane around 11 p.m. EDT (0300 UTC, August 26) as the strongest storm to hit the United States mainland since 2004. The National Hurricane Center predicts Harvey will linger over Texas for days, dumping 15–25 inches (38–64 cm), and as much as 35 inches (89 cm) of rain on some parts of the state.