WOODRUFF: Hurricane Harvey is bearing down on the Gulf Coast of Texas tonight, with all
the makings of a major disaster.
By early evening, the storm had sustained winds of 125 miles an hour, and could get
even stronger.
Lisa Desjardins begins our coverage.
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LISA DESJARDINS, PBS NEWSHOUR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Waves battered Galveston and
the rest of the Texas coast all day, the punishing winds and rain only beginning.
From high overhead, cameras aboard the international space station captured the scope of the storm
as it closed in.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott activated 700 National Guard troops and braced for the worst.
GOV.
GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: We are going to be dealing with immense, really record- setting
flooding in multiple regions across the state of Texas.
You may think that the initial surge is something that you will be able to deal with.
What you don’t know and what nobody else knows right now will be the magnitude of flooding
that will be occurring over the coming days, and the aftermath of the initial surge.
DESJARDINS: Harvey is poised to make landfall overnight near Corpus Christi.
But, it's expected to stall and hover, inundating a wide swath of the state, including San Antonio
and Houston, with up to three feet of rain.
Then, another weather front could push it back into the Gulf of Mexico, to regain strength
and strike again near Houston.
Seven coastal Texas counties ordered tens of thousands to evacuate from low-lying areas.
Other areas, like Galveston, only encouraged residents to leave.
But the city's mayor warned, the flooding will be worse than usual.
MAYOR JAMES YARBROUGH, GALVESTON: That hovering effect will impact us.
We're going to see high tides come up.
The highest tide, we anticipate, will be in the morning.
The bad news is, they're not going down for three or four days.
And so, you get those high tides in the morning, any of this rain we anticipate is going to
stack on top of that.
DESJARDINS: Corpus Christi officials are also anticipating tough times.
JUDGE LOYD NEAL, NUECES COUNTY: When the power goes off, you can expect it to be off, depending
on where you are in the city of Corpus Christi and in Nueces County, three to seven days.
DESJARDINS: With that in mind, one hospital in Corpus Christi airlifted 10 critically
ill infants from its intensive care unit.
As thousands of others hit the road for drier land today, a few took advantage of pounding
waves.
But a county sheriff put it plainly: stay at your own risk.
SKIPPER OSBORNE, SHERIFF, MATAGORDA COUNTY: I am not going to send the boat down there
after we ask you to leave.
We are not -- I’m not going to put one of my deputies' lives on the line to go down
there and get you out.
So, you're on your own.
DESJARDINS: Some boarded up their homes and hunkered down despite the warnings.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I’m scared.
So I will do everything I can to protect our little place down here, and hope and pray
for the best.
DESJARDINS: In Washington, President Trump's homeland security advisor Tom Bossert said
federal disaster preparations are well under way.
TOM BOSSERT, HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: Right now, we're executing and we're going to do
what it takes to save peoples lives and make their lives easier as they sustain damage.
DESJARDINS: The president tweeted that he'd spoken with the governors of Texas and Louisiana,
and will assist as needed.
And later, the White House announced he'll go to Texas early next week.
For the PBS NEWSHOUR, I’m Lisa Desjardins.
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WOODRUFF: The National Hurricane Center has issued very clear warnings about the danger
of this storm.
Ed Rappaport is the acting director, and he joins me now from Miami.
Thank you so much for talking with us.
What's the latest on Harvey's course?
EDWARD RAPPARORT, ACTING DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: The latest is that the center
of Harvey is located about 50 miles offshore between Corpus Christi and Port O’Connor,
Texas.
And we think that the center will be moving ashore there by about midnight.
While the center's offshore though, the strong winds and heavy rain and high storm surge
are already approaching the coast.
We've seen gusts now of over 80 miles per hour reported at Port Aransas, and the war
levels are beginning to rise.
That's one of our big fears is that the storm surge associated with the hurricane is going
to rise to life threatening levels.
WOODRUFF: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you.
What is the greatest danger?
It's flooding, is that rain that's going to hover over the area?
RAPPAPORT: Yes.
The greatest danger from hurricanes is always water, 90 percent of lives lost during hurricanes
are due to water.
And it's split, many from storm surge, others from rainfall.
In this case, we have both hazards in play.
First along the coast, we have that storm surge that could rise to six to 12 feet, above
ground level.
There will be waves on top of that.
Then, we also expect rainfall that’s going to be near record levels.
Here's the Texas coast.
This area here we're expecting at least 20 inches of rain, perhaps as much as 35 inches
of rain.
So, very dangerous conditions both from the sea and from the rainfall.
WOODRUFF: And, Ed Rappaport, some concern this storm could go out and come back again
and hit Houston twice?
RAPPAPORT: There's some possibility that down the road, three to five days, that we'll have
the system move back offshore.
But at the moment, the biggest threat, the biggest concern is for the next three days
with the storm surge which will linger through many high tides, as well as the rainfall,
along the Texas coastal area.
WOODRUFF: I want to ask you to put this in context.
We were looking at the warning the Hurricane Center put out just a few hours ago.
Catastrophic flooding, life threatening conditions -- this is very strong language.
RAPPAPORT: That's right.
This at the moment appears to be the strongest hurricane that we've had make landfall in
Texas in about 50 years.
So, I hope that provides some perspective at what we’re looking at.
The last time we had such a strong storm was actually in the Corpus Christi area back in
1970 or even before that, 1964, also along the Texas coast.
WOODRUFF: And I know you are continually giving warnings and urging people to pay attention.
Ed Rappaport, we --
RAPPAPORT: Yes.
WOODRUFF: We thank you very much, from the National Hurricane Center.
RAPPAPORT: Thank you.
WOODRUFF: In the city of San Antonio, they're preparing for heavy rain, winds and evacuees
from the coast.
Ron Nirenberg is the mayor.
I spoke with him just a short time ago.
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WOODRUFF: Mayor Nirenberg, thank you very much for joining us.
What have you been told to expect from this storm?
MAYOR RON NIRENBERG, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Well, we're expecting some localized flooding because
of some significant rainfalls that will occur over the next several hours and several days.
But more importantly than that, our area is a coordinated regional emergency operation
center.
So, we’ve spun that up.
We've been working with our emergency services departments over the last several days to
prepare and we’ve received a lot of resources from the different parts of the state that
are now being deployed to the coastal areas and we're also receiving a lot of evacuees
from the coastal communities.
There's a couple command tree evacuations and then, of course, there are people who
are leaving which is a good idea, with the path of the storm going right over them.
WOODRUFF: Well, before I ask you about some of that, I do want to ask you about the flooding,
the rain you're expecting.
What have they told you to expect?
I know from historical experience in San Antonio had some serious rain episodes in the past.
NIRENBERG: Yes.
And the projections have changed.
As we moved along in the storm and we're cautioning everyone to be aware of the evolving nature
of the storm that they could change again.
But we know in San Antonio that a small amount of rainfall, falling in a short period of
time can create some flash flooding, significant flooding.
We saw that as recently as two weeks ago.
So, we have been told to expect anywhere from six to 15 inches depending where you are in
San Antonio.
The heavy rain will fall east of I-35 and I-37.
But again, that could all change.
We're asking residents to please stay home, use some common sense, stay off the roadways
and if they have to travel, avoid low water crossings and be aware of their surroundings.
We're going to have emergency crews operating.
Currently, they are barricading known trouble areas with regard to high water areas, and
we're also asking people just to alert our authorities if they find areas that are low
-- you know, high water over the road.
WOODRUFF: So you're not asking people in your area to evacuate?
NIRENBERG: No.
San Antonio is not under any kind of evacuation.
We’re just asking people to clear path for first responders and to make sure that the
roads are clear as evacuees continue to come here.
We've had 700 of them come already that are sheltered and we have many more that are coming
through our area or stopping in San Antonio on their own volition because they have wisely
chosen to leave the coastal area.
WOODRUFF: So do you -- do you feel you have what you need to handle the people who are
coming into this city?
NIRENBERG: Absolutely.
And we've been coordinating resources throughout the week and San Antonio is ready.
No one will be turned away if they need shelter in San Antonio and we certainly stand ready
as we always are in the event of significant storm, you know, rain or winds here in San
Antonio locally.
WOODRUFF: Are residents heeding your advice, the advice they're getting from city officials
and from weather officials as well?
NIRENBERG: They are.
Our residents here in San Antonio have been through this before.
As I mentioned, we're in flash flood alley, so we've seen small rain events turn into
flooding situations.
So, they're aware.
But we want to make sure that also, we're checking on each other, you know, neighbors
checking on neighbors.
But just doing the simple things, preparing for -- staying in during the vast part of
this weekend and into next week, staying out of the way of first responders.
And in the event someone can help, we're also taking volunteers and doing trainings through
our American Red Cross, all the way through tomorrow, and asking people to call our non-emergency
lines to help with any assistance they can provide.
We also are asking them to download apps and stay aware of the changing nature of the storm.
WOODRUFF: What's your biggest worry right now?
NIRENBERG: You know, I’m not worried.
I’m just presented and working with our emergency services, our neighbors to our south
in the coastal areas.
We're activated.
We're ready.
We know how to handle this.
So, it's not worry, it's just making sure that we're handling everything as it comes
and ensuring that as people who do arrive from the coast who are worried about what
they're going to arrive back when they go home know that they have a friend and a neighbor
and a safe place and shelter here in San Antonio.
WOODRUFF: Well, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, we certainly wish you the best with this and wish safety
for everybody there.
Thank you very much.
NIRENBERG: Thank you, Judy.