The Jim Bakker Show

Texas edges closer to recovery after Harvey as key pipeline restarts

Samaritans help clear debris from the house of a neighbor which was left flooded from Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston, Texas, U.S. September 3, 2017.

By Catherine Ngai

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Gulf Coast moves closer to recovery from Hurricane Harvey on Monday when the biggest American fuel system restarts a key segment shut down by devastating rains and officials weigh how to pay for billions of dollars in damage.

The move by Colonial Pipeline to resume transporting distillates such as diesel fuel comes as the Gulf region’s energy industry starts to come back online.

Flooding from Harvey drove up fuel prices by shutting down almost a quarter of U.S. refining capacity.

The storm came ashore on Aug. 25 as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years. It killed an estimated 50 people, displaced more than 1 million and damaged some 200,000 homes in a path of destruction stretching for more than 300 miles (480 km).

Colonial said it expected to reopen a Texas section of its network from Houston to Hebert, Texas, on Monday, which is the Labor Day holiday. The line would be ready to start moving gasoline on Tuesday, it said.

The pipelines’ reopening will restore links between refineries along the Gulf Coast, the U.S. petrochemical hub, to markets in the Northeast.

Another fuel system, Explorer Pipeline, said a link running from Texas to Oklahoma restarted on Sunday, with a second pipeline from Oklahoma into the Midwest expected to resume on Monday.

Retail fuel costs surged through the weekend amid fears of shortages, despite the restart of several key Gulf refineries that had been crippled by Harvey.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin challenged Congress on Sunday to raise the government’s debt limit in order to free up relief spending. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the storm had caused up to $180 billion in damage.

President Donald Trump’s administration has asked Congress for an initial $7.85 billion for recovery efforts, a small fraction of what will eventually be needed.

Even that amount could be delayed unless Congress quickly increases the government’s debt ceiling, Mnuchin said. The United States is on track to hit its mandated borrowing limit by the end of the month unless Congress increases it.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city expected most public services and businesses to be restored by Tuesday, the first day after the Labor Day holiday.

About 37,000 families were staying in 270 shelters in Texas, the highest number reported by the American Red Cross.

The city mandated the evacuation of thousands of people on the western side of Houston on Sunday to accommodate the release of water from reservoirs that otherwise might sustain damage. The storm stalled over Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, dumping more than 50 inches (1.3 m) on the region.

(Reporting by Catherine Ngai in HOUSTON and Ian Simpson in WASHINGTON; Editing by Paul Tait)

Texas crews search for survivors in wake of Harvey’s floods

A Marine Corp vehicle patrols a flooded street as a result of Tropical Storm Harvey in Port Arthur, Texas, U.S., August 31, 2017.

By Emily Flitter and Andy Sullivan

PORT ARTHUR, Texas/HOUSTON (Reuters) – A week after Hurricane Harvey came ashore in Texas, rescuers kept up a marathon search for survivors on Friday as large pockets of land remained under water after one of the costliest natural disasters to hit the United States.

The storm has displaced more than 1 million people with 44 feared dead from flooding that paralyzed Houston, swelled river levels to record highs and knocked out the drinking water supply in Beaumont, Texas, a city of about 120,000 people.

Chemicals maker Arkema SA and public health officials warned of the risk of more explosions and fires at a plant owned by the company. On Thursday blasts rocked the facility, about 25 miles east of Houston and zoned off inside a 1.5-mile (2.4-km) exclusion zone, after it was engulfed by floodwater.

With the presence of water-borne contaminants a growing concern, the National Weather Service issued flood watches from Arkansas into Ohio on Friday as the remnants of the storm made their way through the U.S. heartland.

The Neches River, which flows into Beaumont and nearby Port Arthur, was forecast for a record crest from Friday well above flood levels. The flooding and loss of drinking water forced the evacuation of a hospital on Thursday.

Two of the last people remaining in their flooded home near the river, Kent Kirk, 58, and Hersey Kirk, 59, were pulled to safety late Thursday.

“They were the last holdouts, the last house,” said Dennis Landy, a neighbor who had spent the day in his airboat ferrying people from a small, remote group of houses near Rose City, Texas, close to the Neches’ banks, to safety.

It took an hour of coaxing by a rescuer but Hersey Kirk finally let herself be carried from her wheelchair to the airboat and then to a Utah Air National Guard helicopter.

“I’m losing everything again,” she said. “We got flooded in Ike, in Rita. My husband just got a new car – well it was new to him anyway. It’s sitting in 5 feet of water.”

Harvey roared ashore late last Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in half a century. It dumped unprecedented quantities of rain and left devastation across more than 300 miles (482 km) in the southeast corner of the state.

COST OF UP TO $75 BILLION

Moody’s Analytics estimated the economic cost from Harvey for southeastern Texas at $51 billion to $75 billion, ranking it among the costliest storms in U.S. history. Much of the damage has been to Houston, the U.S. energy hub.

At least 44 people were dead or feared dead in six counties including and around Houston, officials said. Another 19 remained missing.

Some 779,000 Texans have been told to leave their homes and another 980,000 fled voluntarily amid dangers of new flooding from swollen rivers and reservoirs, according to federal estimates.

Tens of thousands crowded in evacuation centers across the region.

Evacuees affected by Tropical Storm Harvey take shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, Texas, U.S. August 31, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

A new hurricane, Irma, had strengthened into a Category 3 storm, the midpoint of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, on Friday. It remained hundreds of miles from land but was forecast to possibly hit the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti by the middle of next week.

Seventy percent of Harris County, which encompasses Houston and has a population of about 4.6 million people, was covered with 18 inches (45 cm) or more of water, county officials said.

As signs of normal life returned to Houston, the nation’s fourth most populous city, there were concerns about health risks from bacteria and pollutants in floodwater.

The Houston Astros baseball team, forced to play away from the city due to the floods, will return and play at its home field on Saturday. It has invited shelter residents to attend its double header against the New York Mets, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on his Twitter feed.

Flooding has shut some of the nation’s largest oil refineries and hit U.S. energy infrastructure, which is centered along the Gulf Coast. It has sent gasoline prices climbing and disrupted global fuel supplies. [O/R]

The national average for a regular gallon of gasoline rose to $2.519 as of Friday morning, the highest since August 2015, up 17 cents since before the storm hit, according to motorists advocacy group AAA.

The storm knocked out about a quarter of U.S. oil refining capacity and the signs of restarts were tentative.

In major Texas cities including Dallas, there were long lines at gas stations, prompting state regulators to tell people they were sparking a panic and saying there were ample fuel supplies.

Power outages had decreased from peaks of over 300,000 to about 160,000 homes and business in Texas and Louisiana as of Friday morning, data from utilities showed.

(Additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis, Marianna Parraga, Ernest Scheyder, Ruthy Munoz, Peter Henderson and Andy Sullivan in Houston, David Gaffen in New York, Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Scott Malone Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Trott)

Explosions hit flood-swamped Arkema chemical plant in Texas

By David Shepardson and Jon Herskovitz

WASHINGTON/AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Two explosions hit the flood-swamped Arkema SA <AKE.PA> chemical plant 25 miles northeast of Houston early on Thursday, and a sheriff’s deputy was taken to a hospital after inhaling fumes, the French company said.

Arkema said further explosions of organic peroxides produced by the Crosby, Texas, plant and stored onsite were possible, and it urged people to stay away as the fire burns itself out. Black smoke was billowing from the site, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters at a televised news briefing.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it had temporarily barred flights from the area because of the risk of fire or explosion.

Assistant Fire Chief Bob Rayall said on Thursday that “a series of pops” at the scene led to the fires. “We haven’t had massive explosions,” Rayall said, emphasizing the fires had been contained so far.

Rayall said three of the site’s nine containers with the peroxides had lost refrigeration, and one had caught fire.

Arkema said the company had no way to prevent fires because the plant is swamped by about 6 feet (1.83 m) of water due to flooding from Harvey, which came ashore in Texas last week as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, knocking out power to its cooling system.

The company said the Harris County Emergency Operations Center notified it at about 2 a.m. CDT of two explosions and black smoke coming from the plant in Crosby.

“Organic peroxides are extremely flammable and, as agreed with public officials, the best course of action is to let the fire burn itself out,” Arkema said.

The peroxides are used to make plastic resins, polystyrene, paints and other products.

The sheriff’s office said on Twitter that the deputy had been taken to hospital, and 14 others drove themselves there as a precaution. Eight have been released, and seven remain under observation.

The department said it believed the smoke was a “non-toxic irritant.”

“Remain well clear of the area and follow directions of local officials,” the National Weather Service said after the explosions, noting that winds were from the west to the east from 4 to 9 miles (6.4 to 14.5 km) per hour.

The plant had been closed since Friday, and the company had evacuated remaining workers on Tuesday. Harris County ordered the evacuation of several hundred residents within a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) radius.

“We want local residents to be aware that product is stored in multiple locations on the site, and a threat of additional explosion remains,” Arkema said. “Please do not return to the area within the evacuation zone.”

The company’s shares were down 1.9 percent in Paris trading.

Richard Rowe, chief executive officer of Arkema’s North America unit, told reporters on Wednesday that chemicals on the site would catch fire and explode if they were not properly cooled.

Arkema said it opted not to move chemicals before the storm but made extensive preparations. A company spokeswoman did not immediately say when Arkema believes the fires will end.

Rowe said a fire would not pose any “long-term harm or impact.”

The plant has been without electric service since Sunday. It lost refrigeration when backup generators were flooded, and workers transferred products from warehouses into diesel-powered refrigerated containers.

The company said some refrigeration of back-up containers has been compromised because of high water levels and that it was monitoring temperature levels remotely.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas. Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Lisa Von Ahn)

‘Feed the rescue workers’: Katrina survivors offer tips to Houston

FILE PHOTO: Texas National Guardsmen work alongside first responders to rescue local citizens from severe flooding in Cypress Creek, Houston, U.S. August 28, 2017. U.S. Army National Guard/Capt. Martha Nigrelle/Handout via REUTERS

By Emily Flitter

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Adrian Schwing knows how grueling it can be to survive the aftermath of a major storm: He and his family of five spent seven months living in a single bedroom offered by a friend after their home in New Orleans was destroyed more than a decade ago by Hurricane Katrina.

He now has advice for the people of Houston as they emerge from days of record rainfall brought by powerful storm Harvey that overwhelmed nearly a fifth of the city and forced tens of thousands to flee to shelters.

“They have to open up their hearts to their friends and family,” said Schwing, 63.

Other survivors of the storm that ravaged New Orleans in 2005, killing more than 1,800 people, had more practical suggestions for storm-weary Texans, like getting a quick start on purchasing building materials once the waters recede.

“Sheetrock and door frames sell out the fastest,” said Anthony Puglia Jr., 37, who, along with his wife and their newborn baby, spent weeks after Katrina with relatives, only to return to face a scramble for building supplies.

“They might also want to start getting contracts for roofers,” Puglia said.

Harvey struck Texas as a hurricane late on Friday, tearing off roofs and snapping utility poles with winds of 130 miles per hour (210 km per hour), making it the strongest storm to hit the state since 1961.

It weakened quickly to a tropical storm but lingered over the Houston area for days, dumping more than 50 inches (130 cm)of rain in some sections, submerging thousands of homes and killing at least 17 people. On Wednesday, it was lumbering east toward Louisiana, where it continues to threaten areas with flooding.

INSURANCE

Puglia, who operates the family’s sporting goods store in Metairie, Louisiana, chatted on Tuesday with a customer, Trent Gray, 49, who had also survived Katrina.

“When it comes to insurance, sign up for everything you can, even if you don’t need it,” Gray said.

Gray said Katrina had done minimal damage to his house, but his home insurance provider gave him money to live while he was away. He said a government insurance program had also helped him install hurricane shutters to protect against future storms.

Puglia said giving his name to agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross also helped him get baby formula from distribution centers.

FEMA said on Wednesday that 195,000 people had registered for federal assistance so far as a result of Harvey.

Puglia said several of his neighbors had come into his store earlier in the day to get supplies – including all 25 of the life jackets he had in stock – before heading to Houston with boats to help with rescue efforts.

He said that during Katrina he and his relatives had fed volunteers with meat they had stored in a freezer that had lost power due to the storm – handing out free meals of cooked trout, duck, deer and even squirrel.

“Feed the rescue workers,” Puglia advised.

(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Jonathan Oatis)

Houston imposes night curfew to prevent looting

A helicopter hovers above the Houston skyline as sunlight breaks through storm clouds from Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas, U.S. August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

(Reuters) – Houston has imposed an overnight curfew beginning at midnight Tuesday for an indefinite period amid incidents of looting, armed robberies and people impersonating police officers, city officials said.

The curfew will run from midnight until 5 p.m. It originally was due to begin at 10 p.m. but the city pushed the start back two hours to allow volunteers to continue working, Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement. The city is also bringing additional police from other regions.

“You cannot drive, nor be in any public place. We have had problems with armed robberies, with people with guns and firearms,” said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo.

Turner earlier said the city was opening several additional emergency shelters to alleviate crowding at the convention center, which has 10,000 people. Some of those will be moved to a nearby concert hall and basketball arena.

One shelter will open on the city’s west side, near where more than 3,000 homes have been flooded. Another center in Humble, Texas, will house people from the city’s northern suburbs, the mayor added.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Sandra Maler)

‘We’ve got work to do’: Houston policeman’s last words to family

By Ruthy Munoz

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Houston police officer Steve Perez told his wife and family he had no choice but to drive through the torrential rains from Tropical Storm Harvey to get to his job, despite their worries about his safety.

“We’ve got work to do,” he told them before leaving.

He never made it.

Perez, a 60-year-old sergeant with more than three decades on the Houston police force, died in the flood waters after leaving his home on Sunday morning – making him one of at least 12 people killed since Harvey crashed into the Texas coast on Friday as a major hurricane.

City officials were preparing to shelter some 19,000 people as the slow-moving storm lingers over the state, with thousands more expected to flee the area as the flooding entered its fourth day.

“We have 6,500 employees and I’ve only been here nine months,” said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Tuesday in a news conference confirming Perez’s death. “But I knew who Steve Perez was because Steve was a sweet, gentle public servant,” he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

According to Acevedo, Perez left home Sunday morning over the objections of his wife and father-in-law, and tried for hours to find a safe path to work as heavy rains made many roads impassable. At one point he called his colleagues, suggesting he would try to work from another station.

But by roll call on Monday morning, when police noticed his continued absence, they launched a search, using divers and members of the volunteer Louisiana Cajun Navy who had helped with rescues in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

His body was found Tuesday morning, Acevedo said. An investigation determined he had driven off an overpass that was 16.5 feet (5 meters) high, and drowned in the waters below.

“I’ll simply say our hearts our saddened. We grieve for this family. We extend to them our prayers from the entire Houston community and, quite frankly, even beyond,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Tuesday.

Perez is survived by his wife Cheryl, a son, a daughter and his father-in-law, a Korean War veteran.

Acevedo said the department and the city will give Perez full honors. He is the 85th police officer to die in the line of duty in the United States this year, according to the Officer Down memorial page which keeps track of all law enforcement casualties across the United States.

(Reporting by Ruthy Munoz; Additional reporting by Brice Makini; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Harvey soaks Louisiana as Houston paralyzed by flooding

By Ruthy Munoz and Gary McWilliams

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Harvey bore down on Louisiana on Wednesday, pouring down more water after setting rainfall records in Texas that caused catastrophic flooding and paralyzed the U.S. energy hub of Houston.

The storm that first came ashore on Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years has killed at least 17 people and forced tens of thousands to leave their deluged homes.

Damage has been estimated at tens of billions of dollars, making it one of the costliest U.S. natural disasters.

There is some relief in sight for Houston, the fourth most populous U.S. city, with forecasters saying five days of torrential rain may come to an end as the storm picks up speed and leaves the Gulf of Mexico region later in the day.

Harvey made landfall early Wednesday and was about 32 miles (52 km) south of Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was expected to bring an additional 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15.24 cms) of rain to an area about 80 miles east of Houston as well as southwestern Louisiana, where some areas have already seen more than 18 inches of rain.

Several hundred people had already been rescued from their homes in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where floodwaters were knee-deep in places, Mayor Nic Hunter told CNN.

“We are a very resilient people down here. We will survive. We will take care of each other down here in Texas and Louisiana,” Hunter said. “But we do need some help from the federal government, these homeowners and these people who have been displaced. That’s going to be our biggest need.”

Harvey is projected to weaken as it moves inland to the northeast, the National Hurricane Center said.

“We aren’t going to be dealing with it for too much longer. It’s going to pick up the pace and get out of here,” said Donald Jones, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.

But nearly a third of Harris County, home to Houston, was under water, an area 15 times the size of Manhattan, according to the Houston Chronicle newspaper. It may take days for all flood waters, which have spilled over dams and pushed levees to their limits, to recede, local officials said.

City officials were preparing to temporarily house some 19,000 people, with thousands more expected to flee. As of Wednesday morning, state officials said close to 49,000 homes had suffered flood damage, with more than 1,000 destroyed.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner imposed a curfew from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. amid reports of looting, armed robberies and people impersonating police officers.

U.S. President Donald Trump visited Texas on Tuesday to survey damage from the first major natural disaster to test his crisis leadership. The president said he was pleased with the response, but too soon for a victory lap.

“We won’t say congratulations,” he said. “We don’t want to do that … We’ll congratulate each other when it’s all finished.”

Moody’s Analytics is estimating the economic cost from Harvey for southeast Texas at $51 billion to $75 billion.

The storm has affected nearly one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity, sparking concerns about gasoline supply. The national average gasoline price rose to $2.404 a gallon, up six cents from a week ago, with higher spikes in Texas.

The unprecedented flooding has left scores of neighborhoods in chest-deep water and badly strained the dams and drainage systems that protect the low-lying Houston metropolitan area whose economy is about as large as Argentina’s.

The National Weather Service has issued flood watches and warnings that stretch from the Houston area into Tennessee.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump receive a briefing on Tropical Storm Harvey relief efforts in Corpus Christi, Texas. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

DIED TRYING TO RESCUE PEOPLE

Harvey has drawn comparisons with Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans 12 years ago, killing more than 1,800 people and causing an estimated $108 billion in damage.

Among the confirmed fatalities was Houston Police Sergeant Steve Perez, a 34-year veteran of the force who drowned while attempting to drive to work on Sunday.

In Beaumont, northeast of Houston, a woman clutching her baby daughter was swept away in raging flooding. The baby was saved but the mother died, Beaumont police said.

Ruben Jordan, a retired high school football coach died when he was helping rescue people trapped in high water, the Clear Creek Independent School District said.

In all, 17 people have perished, according to government officials and the Houston Chronicle. Four volunteer rescuers also went missing after their boat was swept in a fast-moving current, local media reported.

U.S. Coast Guard helicopters and boats have rescued more than 4,000 people. Thousands of others have been taken to safety by police, rescue workers and citizen volunteers who brought their boats to help, local officials said.

The National Hurricane Center on Tuesday afternoon said a record 51.88 inches (131.78 cm) of rain had fallen in Texas due to Harvey, a record for any storm in the continental United States.

This breaks the previous record of 48 inches set during tropical storm Amelia in 1978 in Medina, Texas, the NHC said. Medina is west of San Antonio. The island of Kauai was hit with 52 inches of rain from tropical cyclone Hiki in 1950, before Hawaii became a U.S. state.

For a graphic on storms in the North Atlantic, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/STORM-HARVEY/010050K2197/index.html

Ethan holds his 2-year-old daughter Zella as they walk through flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Iowa, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, U.S., on August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

(Additional reporting by Gary McWilliams, Ernest Scheyder, Erwin Seba, Ruthy Munoz and Peter Henderson in Houston; Andy Sullivan in Rockport, Texas; Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Scott Malone and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Toby Chopra and Chizu Nomiyama)

‘Fun’ amidst the flooding. Houston’s kids show resilience as waters rise

Leeanta Rodriguez, 13, pictured at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, U.S., August 27, 2017

By Brian Thevenot

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Houston’s Nine-year old Melody Rodriguez saw a snake swimming toward her through the floodwaters. Reginald James Jones, Jr., also nine, had to climb into the attic to escape water up to the roof.

His sister, seven-year-old Ta’lilia Smithers had screamed that her family would die as the water rose quickly in their home.

These children and others who were rescued on Sunday and ferried on city dump trucks to Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center also brought wonder and resilience to their perspective on the torrential rains from Hurricane Harvey that drowned their homes.

Their fascination after witnessing the power of nature escaped their beleaguered parents in the cavernous hall.

Being up in that attic was “fun,” Reginald said.

“It was a really big attic,” he said. “The attic kept us calm. I could see everything from up there – all the flooding. And I could see downtown.”

His little sister, 5-year-old Jakayla Taylor, marveled at how the “whole city was flooded – like a beach.”

Ta’lilia found took comfort in knowing she would probably get “a whole week off of school.”

“But momma says she can’t wait for us to go back to school, so she can have her eight hours of peace,” she added.

Late Sunday evening, Melody had recovered from the snake scare of that morning and reveled in the retelling. The people at the shelter, she said, were just so nice.

“They gave us pizza, lasagna, hot dogs, potato chips – and they also gave me these shoes,” she said, showing off her new purple rubber kicks. “Oh, and this hand sanitizer.”

Melody’s mother, who had five more children with her between the ages of 4 and 15, smiled as she watched her daughter excitedly tell flood stories and play with stuffed animals the Red Cross gave out.

As far as storm shelters go, this one was well-staffed and comfortable – a world away from the nightmarish scene at the ad hoc shelter at New Orleans’ convention center 12 years ago during Hurricane Katrina.

Houston’s experience with Harvey has drawn comparisons with the disaster that hit New Orleans, but there are many contrasts.

Nearly all of Houston’s downtown, for instance, appeared to have power Sunday night, along with many other areas of the city. Unlike New Orleans, Houston did not suffer a catastrophic wind storm before the flooding began, nor the massive levee failures that let in all the water at once.

Emergency management officials and the Red Cross had more time to organize shelters in Houston as Harvey first pounded coastal cities further south along the Texas coast, including Rockport.

Melody’s mom, 37-year-old Aeisha Brimzy, said her family’s every need had been handled since they arrived.

“It has been like all of us coming together,” she said of the flood victims at the convention center. “It’s been so peaceful. They have been feeding us all day, giving the kids snacks. The volunteers and the Red Cross and the police, they are really doing their job.”

Just then, a voice over the loudspeaker said: “If you need dry clothes, go to your cot. We are handing out fresh, dry clothes.”

A few yards away, people gathered around a big-screen TV taking in the latest storm news.

A volunteer came by to offer the kids more hot dogs. The youngsters said they were already full.

Earlier in the day, the children had suffered a harrowing trauma.

“Momma, is it going to get higher? I can’t swim,” Brimzy recalled one of her six-year-old twins, Carolina, saying as the water from Buffalo Bayou rushed into their apartment in Clayton Homes, a public housing development on the east side of downtown.

Melody showed a mix of sadness at some of her losses and bewilderment at what she had witnessed.

“My back pack is gone. I lost two tablets and some other very valuable stuff,” she said, referring to her Apple iPads. “And two pairs of name-brand shoes.”

“Our table, it was floating in the water! It was so high that our couch was floating around. But momma’s vases just sank,” Melody said.

Another daughter, 13-year Leeanta Rodriguez, had spent the night before tossing and turning in bed.

“I couldn’t sleep, because I knew that bayou was going to come up,” she said.

Sure enough it did, at about dawn. She carried her sister, Carolina, out of the flood and to the rescue trucks on her back.

Now at the shelter in the late evening, Leeanta worried about more practical things, like whether she would have to change schools, which she didn’t want to do. She said she loved her friends and her basketball team at Pershing Middle School.

Across the big room where they gathered, seven-year-old Ta’lilia worried about her school, too. She believed it had flooded like her house. The school is located in South Houston near a Bray’s Bayou.

“It’s Thompson Elementary – the Thompson Eagles,” she said. “It’s my first school I’ve ever been to … I guess I’ll just have to be strong and brave – because the eagle in strong and brave.”

(Reporting by Brian Thevenot; Editing by Simon Webb and Marla Dickerson)

U.S. officials say 450,000 in Texas likely to seek disaster aid

Residents use a truck to navigate through flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston, Texas, U.S. August 27, 2017.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. emergency management officials said on Monday they were expediting federal resources to Texas to help with rescue efforts after Hurricane Harvey swamped coastal areas of the state and forced 30,000 people to seek refuge in temporary shelters.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said more than 450,000 people were expected to seek disaster assistance due to flooding after Harvey made landfall during the weekend before weakening to tropical storm status. President Donald Trump approved an emergency request on Monday for Louisiana, where severe flooding also was expected.

“We are not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot,” Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke said at a news briefing early on Monday. “Harvey is still a dangerous and historic storm.”

Duke said federal agencies were focused at the moment on providing state and local officials in Texas with the assistance they need to continue search and rescue efforts to help those immediately affected by the flooding.

“Right now we are focused on rescue operations and will move into recovery operations later in the week,” she said. “But today we are deeply concerned with those in Houston and surrounding areas who are stranded and in need of immediate assistance.”

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said federal officials were focused on a “life safety and life sustaining mission” at the moment, helping with things like swift water search and rescue efforts over the 30 to 50 counties possibly affected by the storm in Texas.

Brock said authorities were anticipating that some 30,000 people would be placed in temporary shelters due to the flooding.

He said FEMA was in the process of deploying life-saving commodities while the Army Corps of Engineers was helping work to restore power and other federal authorities were involved in ensuring communications interoperability between federal, state and local officials.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Bill Trott)

Harvey throws a wrench into U.S. energy engine

Interstate highway 45 is submerged from the effects of Hurricane Harvey seen during widespread flooding in Houston, Texas, U.S. August 27, 2017.

By Ernest Scheyder and Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A hurricane in the heart of the U.S. energy industry is set to curtail near-record U.S. oil production for several weeks, with the impact expected to reverberate throughout the country and across international energy markets.

Harvey hit the Texas shore as a fierce Category 4 hurricane, causing massive flooding that has knocked out 11 percent of U.S. refining capacity, a quarter of oil production from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and closed ports all along the Texas coast.

Gasoline futures jumped as much as 7 percent to their highest level in more than two years in early Monday trading in Asia as traders took stock of the storm’s impact.

The outages will limit the availability of U.S. crude, gasoline and other refined products for global consumers and further push up prices, analysts said.

Damage assessments could take days to weeks to complete, and the storm continues to drop unprecedented levels of rain as it lingers west of Houston, home to oil, gas, pipeline and chemical plants. And restarts are dangerous periods, as fires and explosions can occur.

So far, the federal government has not announced if it will release barrels of oil or refined products from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which holds nearly 680 million barrels of oil.

The SPR was established in the 1970s to prevent supply shocks in the wake of an embargo imposed by several members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

“This is not like anything we have ever seen before,” said Bruce Jefferis, chief executive of Aon Energy, a risk consulting practice. It is too soon to gauge the full extent of Harvey’s damage to the region’s energy infrastructure, he said.

More than 30 inches (76 cm) fell in the Houston area in 48 hours and a lot more rain is forecast, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm was felt from coastal ports to inland oil and gas wells. Oil producers in the Eagle Ford shale region of south Texas have halted some operations.

At least four marine terminals in the Corpus Christi area, an export hub for energy deliveries to Latin America and Asia, remained closed due to the storm.

“We just simply don’t know yet the damage all this rain will have on Houston’s energy infrastructure,” said Andrew Lipow, president of energy consultancy Lipow Oil Associates LLC.

Texas refineries could be offline for up to a month if their storm-drainage pumps become submerged, he said.

As the storm churned towards Texas on Friday, U.S. gasoline futures rose to their highest level in three years for this time of year. Those gains came even before several large Houston area refiners, including Exxon Mobil Corp, halted some operations.

Exxon closed the second largest U.S. refinery, its 560,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Baytown, Texas, complex because of flooding. Royal Dutch Shell also halted operations at its 325,700-bpd Deer Park, Texas, refinery. The refinery may be shut for the week, it said.

Flooding on highways between Houston and Texas City nearer to the coast led Marathon Petroleum Corp to cut back gasoline production at the company’s 459,000-bpd Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, said sources familiar with plant operations.

Marathon Petroleum employees were unable to drive to work and conditions at the plant forced the company to reduce gasoline output, said industry sources. Marathon spokesman Jamal Kheiry declined to discuss plant operations.

Not every plant in the region was hit. Operations were stable at the largest U.S. crude refinery, Motiva Enterprises’ 603,000-bpd Port Arthur plant, the company said.

Motiva double-staffed the refinery’s crew ahead of the storm, as did Total SA at the company’s 225,500-bpd Port Arthur refinery, said sources familiar with plant operations.

Coastal refineries in Texas account for one-quarter of the U.S. crude oil refining capacity. All of those refineries have been impacted by Harvey since Thursday when refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas, shut in production ahead of the storm’s landfall on Friday.

Colonial Pipeline, the largest mover of gasoline, diesel and other refined products in the United States, said its operations had not been affected by Harvey. Any disruptions to the conduit would send prices across the U.S. Southeast and Northeast soaring. Traders have been keeping a close eye on whether there will be an outage at the pipeline.

Citgo Petroleum Corp and Flint Hills Resources , two of the refiners that closed last week as the storm approached, did not provide updates about the status of their Corpus Christi refineries on Sunday.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Additional reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by Gary McWilliams and Sandra Maler)

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