The main shelter set up in Houston for people evacuated after Storm Harvey, is already half full and officials have warned that up to 30,000 people may need emergency accommodation. Close to 6,000 are already in one shelter or another in the besieged city.
The facility established by the Red Cross inside the George Brown Convention Centre is designed to hold 5,000 people. Yet there are already 2,600 people taking shelter there from the torrential race, having either been rescued from their homes or waked to safety themselves. Five people have been reported dead since the storm struck three days ago.
“We are not out of the woods yet,” Elaine Duke, the acting Homeland Security secretary, told reporters.
On Monday lunchtime, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said his officers had received 6,000 emergency calls and rescued 2,000 people in the past day.
Yet, he said there were still more people who still needed to be rescued, and he said there were about 185 requests still outstanding for critical rescues. The Independent accompanied one volunteer team that rescued a family of three, among them two young children. The little girl told how her father had help lots of people in their neighbourhood using a kayak. "My dad's very brave," he said.
While rain eased overnight and flood levels dropped dramatically, emergency teams - joined by hundreds of volunteers and an Armada of boats, were back on those streets that were still flooded and where they believed people still needed to be rescued.
The Associated Press said that in some of the city’s neighbourhoods, floodwaters reached the roof lines of single-story homes and people could be heard pleading for help from inside. While much of Houston has electricity and while several areas have escaped any damage, America’s fourth largest was barely moving. With nearly two feet of rain still expected, authorities worried whether the worst was yet to come.
The Army Corps of Engineers said it had been forced to open reservoirs overwhelmed by Harvey. The move was aimed at protecting the city centre business district, but risked flooding thousands more homes.
In a sign of the ongoing concern, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who was among those who had suggested Houston residents be told to evacuate before the storm hit, said he was activating all of the the national guard - nearly 12,000 in total.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told the media: “The goal is rescue. That’s the major focus for today.”
With the Red Cross scrambling to set up more emergency shelters and appealing to restaurants who were able to spare any food to make it available, it is not just Houston and the surrounding areas that have been impacted.
Wendy Rom, 24, was among those taking refuge at the centre with her husband and her 18-month old daughter.
“The water was high, entering our house, so we moved to the second floor but they started evacuating the neighbourhood so I came with my whole family,” she told Reuters.
With Harvey shifting course all of the them, creating bands of weather that frustratingly turn from rain to sun in a matter of minutes, the heavy rain has also moved eastwards and moved into neighbouring Lousiana.
“The worst is yet to come,” said Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.
