About 2,000 flood victims have been rescued in Houston and about 5,600 were placed in emergency shelters — a number that was expected to rise “exponentially,” the mayor said Monday.
Mayor Sylvester Turner stressed during a news briefing that the main priority was responding to 911 calls as 185 critical rescue requests remained pending.
“We want to get to them today. Our goal is to reach everyone today,” Turner said in an update about Tropical Storm Harvey, which was still pounding the Houston area Monday morning.
Police Chief Art Acevedo said that “a lot of people are frustrated.”
“Hopefully, today we’ll get to the rest of you. Please, don’t give up on us. And none of us are going to give up. So that’s our goal for the day,” Acevedo said at the news conference.
About 75,000 911 calls had been made in the city as of 9 a.m. Monday, officials said.
The backlog of about 120 to 250 calls in the queue has come down to between 10 and 15, they added.
Residents were advised to not hang up their calls despite the delays in getting an answer.
The mayor said shelters are in need of clothing, diapers, baby formula, medical supplies and food.
He stressed that the situation is “dynamic” and that “things can change. They could change by the hour.”
Harvey made landfall late Friday about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, as a Category 4 hurricane but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.
The slow-moving system has caused catastrophic flooding in Texas.
Rains have submerged cars and turned freeways into rivers, with more flooding expected when the storm shifts back in the direction of Houston.
Harvey’s center was about 90 miles southwest of Houston on Monday morning and forecast to veer slowly toward the city through Wednesday, with the worst floods expected later that day and Thursday.
More than 30,000 people are expected to be placed in shelters, FEMA Administrator Brock Long said at a news conference Monday.
The George Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston held about 1,000 on Sunday night — but the numbers have since skyrocketed.
Wendy Rom, 24, was among those taking refuge at the center with her husband and 1½-year-old daughter.
“The water was high, entering our house,” she said, “so we moved to the second floor but they started evacuating the neighborhood so I came with my whole family.”
Dallas, 240 miles north of Houston, also was setting up a “mega shelter” at its convention center to house 5,000 evacuees, the city said in a statement.
Houston did not order an evacuation — even a voluntary one — due to concerns about people being stranded on city highways now consumed by floods, Turner said Sunday.
FEMA’s Long did not question the decision Monday, saying the time frame “for evacuation of the city of Houston could take days, days, literally days.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who had suggested Friday that people leave the area, on Monday told “CBS This Morning” that “the time for making that determination has passed, and (there’s) no need for us to relitigate that issue right now.”
The US Army Corps of Engineers said Monday it was releasing water from two nearby reservoirs into Buffalo Bayou, the primary body of water running through Houston.
“If we don’t begin releasing now, the volume of uncontrolled water around the dams will be higher and have a greater impact on the surrounding communities,” said Col. Lars Zetterstrom, Galveston district commander of the Corps.
The Harris County Flood Control District said it expected the release to start flooding homes around the Addicks and Barker reservoirs Monday morning.
With Post wires
