Texas Prepares As Harvey Strengthens To Category 3 Storm
HOUSTON (AP) — The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Harvey has strengthened to a Category 3 storm.
The center says Harvey has maximum wind speeds of 120 mph.
The storm quickly grew Thursday from a tropical depression into a Category 1 hurricane, and then developed into a Category 2 storm early Friday. By Friday afternoon, it had become a Category 3 storm.
It's forecast to make landfall in Texas 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.
National Hurricane Center spokesman and meteorologist Dennis Feltgen says, "The tropical storm force winds have already commenced on the Gulf Coast. You've essentially run out of time for outdoors preparations. You need to find a safe place and you need to stay there."
With time running out, tens of thousands of people fled from the path of Hurricane Harvey Friday as it picked up strength and took aim at a wide swath of the Texas Gulf Coast that includes oil refineries, chemical plants and dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned that the monster system would be "a very major disaster," and the menacing forecasts drew fearful comparisons to Hurricane Katrina, one of the nation's deadliest.
"We know that we've got millions of people who are going to feel the impact of this storm," said Feltgen. "We really pray that people are listening to their emergency managers and get out of harm's way."
Aside from savage winds and storm surges, the system was expected to drop prodigious amounts of rain. The resulting flooding, one expert said, could be "the depths of which we've never seen."
Galveston-based storm surge expert Hal Needham of the private firm Marine Weather and Climate said forecasts indicated that it was "becoming more and more likely that something really bad is going to happen."
At least one researcher predicted heavy damage that would linger for months or longer.
"In terms of economic impact, Harvey will probably be on par with Hurricane Katrina," said University of Miami senior hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. "The Houston area and Corpus Christi are going to be a mess for a long time."
Scientists warned that Harvey could become powerful enough to swamp counties more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) inland and stir up dangerous surf as far away as Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, more than 500 miles from the projected landfall.
It may also spawn tornadoes. Even after weakening, the system could spin out into the Gulf and regain strength before hitting Houston a second time Wednesday as a tropical storm.
All seven Texas counties on the coast from Corpus Christi to the western end of Galveston Island ordered mandatory evacuations from low-lying areas. Four counties ordered full evacuations and warned there was no guarantee of rescue for people staying behind.
Voluntary evacuations have been urged for Corpus Christi 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.
Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook
(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
