Skip to main content

Hurricane Harvey Strikes a Powerful Blow to Texas, and Lingers - The New York Times

posted onAugust 27, 2017
>

Article snippet: ROCKPORT, Tex. — Hurricane Harvey bombarded a stretch of the Gulf Coast in Texas on Saturday with home-ripping winds and epic rains. As emergency officials scrambled to assess the extent of the damage, hundreds of thousands of people were without power after utility poles were knocked to the ground as if they were twigs. The storm made landfall in this coastal city, ripping away roofs, leveling palm trees and road signs, and turning ranch land into lakes. Mayor Charles J. Wax said Saturday that conditions were too dangerous to send out emergency officials but that an initial review, as the storm’s eye passed overnight, had found “widespread damage.” “We took a Category 4 storm right on the nose,” the mayor said. Those who rode out the storm were in awe of Harvey’s power. Standing by his ripped-up home in Sienna Plantation, a community southwest of Houston, Jamie Ellis, 48, said he had been watching a movie about 1 a.m. Saturday when a tornado swept through that sounded “like a freight train was coming.” The lights went out, the upstairs French doors flew open, and objects began careening around inside his house. He, his wife, Stacie, and his son, Zach, took refuge in a bedroom closet. Harvey was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2005, and it was expected to hover over Texas until at least midweek. A fierce Category 4 hurricane when it struck land on Friday night, it eased by Saturday into a tropical storm. Still, meteorologists... Link to the full article to read more

Emotional score for this article