The Jim Bakker Show

Subdued by Harvey, Congress reconvenes facing fiscal tests

The U.S. Capitol building is seen at sunset in Washington, U.S. May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Zach Gibson

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas, but could bring some fiscal order to Washington where Republicans and Democrats will need to put political differences aside in order to approve spending to repair the damage from flooding in and around Houston.

Lawmakers returning to Washington after a month-long break are expected to swiftly agree to an initial request for nearly $8 billion in disaster aid, with the House of Representatives considering assistance on Wednesday.

More requests will follow from the Trump administration, with the fractious Republicans who control the House and the Senate determined to look capable of governing in a crisis.

Some estimates say Harvey could cost U.S. taxpayers almost as much as the total federal aid outlay of more than $110 billion for 2005’s record-setting Hurricane Katrina.

That sobering cost and the urgent needs of Harvey’s victims have helped to calm a fiscal storm that had threatened to engulf Congress and President Donald Trump ahead of Oct. 1. The rancor revolves around the deadline for lawmakers to approve a temporary spending measure to keep the government from shutting down, as well as the need to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

“There’s reason to hope that in the wake of the tragedy in Texas … there will be a renewed sense of community and common purpose that can help get things done,” said Michael Steel, a Republican strategist who once worked as spokesman for former House Speaker John Boehner.

Before Harvey, Trump had threatened to veto such spending and trigger a shutdown if Congress refused to fund his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. He has dropped his threat, the Washington Post reported on Friday, making a shutdown less likely.

As of the Labor Day holiday weekend, approval by Congress was widely anticipated in late September of a stopgap bill, or continuing resolution, to continue current spending levels for two to three more months.

The need to help Hurricane Harvey victims “creates another reason as to why you’d want to keep the government open,” Republican Senator Roy Blunt said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

FRESH START WITH TRUMP

With much of Washington distracted by tensions with North Korea over its nuclear program, Congress must also raise the federal debt ceiling by the end of September or early October to stave off an unprecedented U.S. government debt default, which would shake global markets.

The debt ceiling caps how much money the U.S. government can borrow, and some conservatives are loath to raise it without spending reforms. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday said Congress should act quickly to increase the debt limit, otherwise relief funding for hurricane-ravaged areas of Texas might be delayed.

“Without raising the debt limit, I am not comfortable that we will get money to Texas this month to rebuild,” Mnuchin said on Fox News Sunday.

Blunt, a junior member of Senate Republican leadership, said it was possible lawmakers could tie legislation raising the debt ceiling to measures providing financial aid for recovery from Harvey. “That’s one way to do it,” he said on Meet the Press.

The head of the Republican Study Committee, the largest group of House conservatives, said on Monday that Congress was obligated to help those hurt by Harvey.

But Representative Mark Walker also warned that “legislative games” like attaching Harvey aid to a debt ceiling hike could jeopardize consensus. “The debt ceiling should be paired with significant fiscal and structural reforms,” he said in a statement.

Senior Republicans were warning Trump not to anger Democrats by carrying through with his threat to curtail the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for immigrant children, which Democrats widely support. Democratic votes will likely be needed to both raise the debt ceiling and prevent a shutdown.

Trump might have listened to them. Sources said on Sunday that he has decided to scrap the program that shields the young immigrants from deportation, but he will give Congress six months to craft a bill to replace it.

With his tendency to send conflicting policy signals and attack fellow Republicans, Trump may present the biggest uncertainty as Congress gets back to work.

The four top Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House are set to hold a rare bipartisan meeting with Trump on Wednesday to chart a path forward for the multiple fiscal issues.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who will attend the meetings, spent much of August feuding with Trump, who attacked the Kentuckian repeatedly on Twitter.

One Republican strategist said the Senate leader would not dwell on those tensions. “Basically every Republican senator is looking to put whatever nonsense happened on Twitter in August in the rear view mirror and focus on all the important work that needs to get done in September,” said Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff and campaign manager for McConnell.

(Additional reporting by David Morgan and Chris Sanders; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Mary Milliken)

Stormed-tossed Texans set to return to work as recovery picks up

By Daniel Trotta

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Texas takes another step toward recovery from Hurricane Harvey on Tuesday when many residents return to work for the first time since the storm devastated the Houston area, killing around 60 people and putting tens of thousands into emergency shelters. Many large Texas employers, universities and transit services are reopening or beginning full service on Tuesday after Labor Day, some for the first time since Harvey struck the state on Aug. 25.

Oil refineries, pipelines and shipping channels in the nation’s energy center have begun a gradual return of operations. Exxon Mobil <XOM.N>, Halliburton <HAL.N> and Chevron <CVX.N> are among the scores of Houston businesses reopening their doors to office workers. Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi and the University of Houston also are resuming classes Tuesday.

The storm first hit Corpus Christi in the south and traveled up the coast, dumping up to 51 inches (129 cm) of rain in places across the region and flooding homes and businesses.

Texas residents who fled to Austin, San Antonio and Dallas ahead of the storm returned to check on their homes as flooded streets drained.

In Houston, travel north and east of the city eased over the weekend and highways filled as more gasoline stations opened and supplies, while tight, proved adequate.

Exxon said its Spring, Texas, campus was unaffected by the heavy rains. But employees who need to work remotely are encouraged to do so, spokeswoman Suann Guthrie said.

Houston Metro, a regional transit provider, said it would open all its parking lots and rush-hour lanes on Tuesday.

Most roads have reopened but travel in some areas west of the city remains difficult. ConocoPhillips’ <COP.N> headquarters on the west side is closed until Sept. 11 due to flooded roads.

Houston’s school district, the seventh largest in the nation, also remains closed this week to repair flooded schools. The district has said about 75 of its 275 schools suffered major or extensive flood damage.

As Houston picked up the pieces from the devastation of Harvey, a new hurricane threat appeared, this time headed for the Caribbean islands, the U.S. East Coast and Florida.

Hurricane Irma was upgraded to a powerful Category 4 storm on Monday as islands in its path braced for its impact. Hurricane advisories were issued for territories that dot the West Indies, including parts of the Leeward Islands, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in preparation for the storm.

Rotting drywall and other material ripped out of homes damaged by Tropical Storm Harvey sits on the edge of a residential street in Houston’s Meyerland neighborhood in Houston, Texas, U.S., September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder

ENERGY SECTOR

In Texas, shipping channels, oil pipelines and refineries restarted some operations on Monday and authorities lifted an evacuation order for the area around a once-burning chemical plant.

Port operations across the U.S. Gulf Coast oil and gas hub were resuming, although many still had restrictions on vessel draft, according to U.S. Coast Guard updates.

U.S. gasoline prices fell in expectation that the area can get back on its feet after Harvey cut a path of destruction across more than 300 miles (480 km). Benchmark U.S. gasoline futures <RBc1> fell by more than 3 percent on Monday.

The Coast Guard allowed some barge traffic to enter Port Arthur, Texas, home of the country’s largest oil refinery, and is considering allowing ships to enter on Tuesday, a spokesman said.

Flooding from Harvey caused fires at the Arkema SA <AKE.PA> chemical plant in Crosby, some 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Houston.

But on Monday, the company said the Crosby Fire Department had lifted a 1.5-mile (2.4-km) evacuation zone around the plant, allowing people to return to their homes.

The lifting of the order may help residents like Paul Mincey, a 31-year-old tugboat engineer who has been kept out of the ranch home he shares with his girlfriend, return to normal.

“It could be full of snakes for all we know. We have no idea what’s in there,” Mincey said from aboard a tugboat in the Houston Ship Channel, which he said was polluted by floating railroad ties, trees and trash strewn by the storm.

HOW TO PAY?

The question of how to pay for hurricane recovery became more urgent in Washington after Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Sunday increased his damage estimate to between $150 billion and $180 billion.

Republicans and Democrats returning to Washington on Tuesday after a month-long break will need to put differences aside in order to approve an aid package. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin challenged Congress to raise the government’s debt limit in order to free up relief spending.

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on $7.85 billion in emergency relief funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration and plans another vote later this month on a separate $6.7 billion sought by President Donald Trump.

The Texas Department of Public Safety on Monday estimated damage to public property at $382.3 million. Some 190,000 homes were damaged and another 13,500 destroyed, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

For a graphic on Hurricane costs, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/STORM-HARVEY-RELIEF/010050LZ1F3/index.html

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

(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York, Gary McWilliams in Houston and David Shepardson in Washington; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Morningside and The Jim Bakker Show Sending Team to Texas

Jim and Lori Bakker ready to leave for the Houston area to bring food, comfort and prayer to those needing our help September 4, 2017

By Kami Klein

Pastor Jim and Lori Bakker left today for the Houston area to help local churches struggling to keep up with the needs from the disaster left behind from Hurricane Harvey. Jim and Lori, along with The Jim Bakker Show team will be there to feed, comfort and pray with those who have lost so much and are struggling to rebuild. They will witness with you scenes that are left from this devastating storm, and share with you the stories of heroism, courage and the humanity of the people that have been affected by this tragic event.

Yesterday, a truck loaded full with pallets of food buckets, water purification products, Bibles and other survival supplies left Morningside bound for Houston. In an email from Pastor Jim he wrote,

“Never before have you been “the hands and feet of Jesus” as much as this moment. Because you have been prepared and have prepared to share with others, we are able to make this trip possible.

We appreciate all you do for this Ministry and for allowing us to represent you to thousands of hurting people in need. We could not be doing this without you.

Please continue to pray for us in our journey. Pray for those still in harm’s way. And, most importantly, continue to pray that each one will experience the love of Jesus through us to His glory. ”

We will be sharing what is happening in Houston directly from our team as they work alongside these true survivors that have shown the world what being a Christian and an American is all about. Please keep them in your prayers!

Morningside and The Jim Bakker Show team ready to leave for Houston.

We are now asking for your help by donating funds towards supporting and helping in areas where there is the greatest need.

The people of Houston and the gulf coast are only at the beginning of an incredibly daunting challenge as they rebuild their lives. Now is the time to remember that we are all part of God’s family.

Now is the time for compassion! Now is the time to act!

Follow this link to our slideshow that will be updated throughout our team’s time in Texas!

Please donate today!

U.S. gasoline prices tumble as Harvey subsides

A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) – Benchmark U.S. gasoline prices slumped on Monday to pre-Hurricane Harvey levels as oil refineries and pipelines in the U.S. Gulf Coast slowly resumed activity, easing supply concerns.

Brent crude oil futures were flat at $52.75 by 1340 GMT, paring earlier losses after a powerful North Korean nuclear test triggered a shift away from crude markets to assets perceived to be safer, such as gold.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, however, were up 34 cents at $47.63 barrel as U.S. demand, hit by reduced refinery activity since Harvey made landfall on Aug. 25, recovered.

NYMEX gasoline futures were down 3.2 percent at $1.6916 a gallon, levels last seen on Aug. 25, the day Harvey struck, crippling production and causing widespread flooding.

Still, damage to the oil infrastructure in the Gulf Coast hub by Harvey appeared less extensive than some had feared.

Harvey has now been downgraded to a tropical storm.

A number of major refineries, which convert crude oil into refined products such as gasoline and jet fuel, as well as distribution pipelines, were gradually resuming operations on Monday.

Valero Energy’s 225,000 barrels per day (bpd) Texas City refinery was the only plant reported to be running at normal rates so far.

At the same time, about 5.5 percent of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico’s oil production, or 96,000 barrels of daily output, remained shut on Sunday, down from a peak of more than 400,000 bpd last week.

“The disruptions from Hurricane Harvey in the U.S. Gulf Coast are gradually clearing. In the broader scheme of things, it appears that so far the energy industry was spared major damages to assets and infrastructure,” analysts at Vienna-based JBC Energy said in a note.

“However, some Houston area refineries will likely remain offline for some time longer.”

Traders booked dozens of gasoline tankers over the past week from Asia and Europe to the United States and Latin America in order to plug supply shortages in the wake of the shutdowns.

European gasoline refining margins dropped by nearly a fifth on Monday.

And while the U.S. government tapped its strategic oil reserves for the first time in five years last week, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said the global energy watchdog still sees no need for a coordinated international release of oil stocks after Harvey.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott estimated damage at $150 billion to $180 billion, calling it more costly than Hurricanes Katrina or Sandy, which hit New Orleans in 2005 and New York in 2012 respectively.

Traders were nervously watching developments in North Korea, where the military conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test over the weekend. Pyongyang said it had tested an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile, prompting the threat of a “massive” military response from the United States if it or its allies were threatened.

That put downward pressure on crude as traders moved money out of oil – seen as high-risk markets – into gold futures traditionally viewed as a safe haven for investors. Spot gold prices rose for a third day, gaining 0.9 percent on Monday.

Overall trading activity in the oil futures market was expected to be low on Monday due to the U.S. Labor Day public holiday.

(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Louise Heavens)

FEMA tells U.S. states to improve their own disaster relief efforts

A family that wanted to remain anonymous moves belongings from their home flooded by Harvey in Houston, Texas August 31, 2017.

HOUSTON (Reuters) – State and local governments need to become more self-sufficient in handling major disasters like Hurricane Harvey, FEMA Administrator Brook Long said in a televised interview on Sunday.

Speaking on CBS’ Face the Nation, Long said the federal support is intended to be a “ray of hope, a bridge to kick-start recovery,” and state and local governments need to do more on their own. They should not expect the federal government to make their citizens whole after major disasters, he said.

“We need elected officials at all levels to sit down and hit the reset button and make sure they have everything they need to increase levels of self-sufficiency,” Long said.

He called the massive devastation “a wakeup call for local and state officials,” saying they needed to fully fund their own emergency management offices and have rainy day funds set aside for such emergencies. “They can’t depend only on federal emergency management,” he said following pointed calls by Houston officials for FEMA to quickly increase staffing in the city and provide relief funds.

Long declined to offer an amount the White House would request Congress to provide for additional emergency assistance in the wake of Harvey. Earlier Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the cost of the storm had risen to between $150 billion and $180 billion.

Houston is making progress on several fronts to recover from Harvey, resuming city services and helping get people into housing and out of emergency shelters, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in separate comments on Face the Nation on Sunday.

“This is a can-do city. We’re not going to engage in a pity party,” said Turner. “People are taking care of each other.” Speaking from the city’s convention center, which once housed 10,000 people fleeing from flooding, he said there are “significantly less than 2,000” people now staying at the shelter.

(Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Subdued by Harvey, Congress reconvenes facing fiscal tests

Church Volunteers work to remove Hurricane Harvey flood damage from a home in Houston, Texas, U.S. September 2, 2017.

By Susan Cornwell

Lawmakers returning to Washington after a month-long break are expected to swiftly agree to an initial request for nearly $8 billion in disaster aid. More requests will follow from the Trump administration, with the fractious Republicans who control the House of Representatives and the Senate determined to look capable of governing in a crisis.

Some estimates say Harvey could cost U.S. taxpayers almost as much as the total federal aid outlay of more than $110 billion for 2005’s record-setting Hurricane Katrina.

The need to help Hurricane Harvey victims “creates another reason as to why you’d want to keep the government open,” Republican Senator Roy Blunt said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

FRESH START WITH TRUMP

“Without raising the debt limit, I am not comfortable that we will get money to Texas this month to rebuild,” Mnuchin said on Fox News Sunday.

Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines said Friday he would prefer to see spending reforms attached to the borrowing ceiling. “We need to do something to reduce the debt.”

With his tendency to send conflicting policy signals and attack fellow Republicans, Trump may present the biggest uncertainty as Congress gets back to work.

The four top Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House are set to hold a rare bipartisan meeting with Trump on Wednesday to chart a path forward for the multiple fiscal issues.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who will attend the meetings, spent much of August feuding with Trump, who attacked the Kentuckian repeatedly on Twitter.

(Additional reporting by David Morgan and Chris Sanders; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Mary Milliken)

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)

Retail U.S. gasoline prices surge as refineries warn of shortages after Harvey

A note is left on a gas pump in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Cedar Park, Texas, U.S., September 1, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Khursheed

By Julia Simon

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Retail U.S. gasoline prices rose 2.8 percent from Friday to Saturday as refineries warned customers about fuel-supply shortages caused by Hurricane Harvey.

They were at $2.59 a gallon, according to motorists advocacy group AAA. It represents a 16.7 percent rise in the average price from a year ago.

Prices have risen more than 17.5 cents since Aug. 23, before the storm began.

Average prices in Texas, the epicenter of the storm, rose more than 3 percent from Friday to Saturday, and are up 12 percent from a week ago.

Refiner Motiva has warned customers along the route of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline to prepare for shortages after Harvey shut refineries and cut supply to the line, said a source at a fuel distributor supplied by Motiva.

Harvey shut refineries that can process up to 4.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude. The plants shut down include Motiva’s 603,000 bpd facility in Port Arthur, Texas, the largest refinery in the country.

Nearly half of the U.S. refining capacity is in the Gulf Coast, a region with proximity to plentiful crude supplies including Texan oil fields and also Mexican and Venezuelan oil imports.

“The refineries were built on the Gulf Coast with the idea that we’re going to import,” said Sandy Fielden, director of oil and products research at Morningstar in Austin, Texas, “That’s why we’re having problems today because that’s where they were all built.”

The reduction in fuel supplies has forced the Colonial Pipeline, which supplies fuel from refineries near the Gulf of Mexico to the U.S. Northeast, to reduce supplies.

Convenience store and gas station chain Circle K, a big buyer from Motiva, said the company was working with a limited supply.

Some crude oil pipelines have restarted operations. Magellan Midstream Partners <MMP.N> announced late Friday that it resumed operations on its BridgeTex and Longhorn crude oil pipelines. The two pipelines transport around 675,000 barrels per day (bpd) of West Texas crude oil into East Houston.

The company says it expects to resume service on its Houston crude oil distribution system over the weekend.

U.S. crude production continues to stall following the storm. As of Friday, volume of crude production still shut-in had declined to about 153,000 bpd, down from 324,000 bpd just two days ago.

(Reporting by Julia Simon Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Trump to visit victims of unprecedented floods in Texas and Louisiana

By Emily Flitter and Daniel Trotta

HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.s. President Donald Trump travels to Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana on Saturday to meet victims of catastrophic storm Harvey, one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history that is presenting a test of his administration.

While Trump visits, attention will also be focused on Minute Maid Park, where baseball’s Houston Astros play their first home games since Harvey devastated the fourth-most populous U.S. city. The Saturday doubleheader with the New York Mets is expected to be wrought with emotion and punctuated with moments to honor the dozens who died as a result of Harvey.

The storm, one of the costliest to hit the United States, has displaced more than 1 million people, with 50 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 120,000 people.

Hurricane Harvey came ashore last Friday as the strongest storm to hit Texas in more than 50 years. Much of the damage took place in the Houston metropolitan area, which has an economy about the same size as Argentina’s.

For graphic on hurricane costs, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2vGkbHS

For graphic on storms in the North Atlantic, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2gcckz5

Seventy percent of Harris County, which encompasses Houston, at one point was covered with 18 inches (45 cm) or more of water, county officials said.

Trump first visited the Gulf region on Tuesday, but stayed clear of the disaster zone, saying he did not want to hamper rescue efforts. Instead, he met with state and local leaders, and first responders.

He was criticized, however, for not meeting with victims of the worst storm to hit Texas in 50 years, and for largely focusing on the logistics of the government response rather than the suffering of residents.

The White House said Trump will first travel to Houston to meet with flood survivors and volunteers who assisted in relief efforts and then move on to Lake Charles, another area hammered by the storm.

The Trump administration in a letter to Congress asked for a $7.85 billion appropriation for response and initial recovery efforts. White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert has said aid funding requests would come in stages as more became known about the impact of the storm.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said that his state may need more than $125 billion.

The storm, which lingered around the Gulf of Mexico Coast for days, dumped record amounts of rain and left devastation across more than 300 miles (480 km) of the state’s coast.

As water receded, many returned to survey the damage and left hundreds of thousands wondering how they can recover.

In Orange, Texas, about 125 miles (200 kms) east of Houston, Sam Dougharty, 36, returned on Friday where waist-high water remained in his backyard and barn.

His family’s house smelled like raw sewage and was still flooded to the ankles. A calf and a heifer from their herd of 15 were dead. The chickens were sagging on the top two roosts of their coop.

“We never had water here. This is family land. My aunt’s owned it for 40 years and never had water here,” he said.

Members of Army National Guard conduct high water rescue operations in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey in Wharton, Texas, U.S. in this August 31, 2017 handout photo. Senior Master Sgt. Robert Shelley/Air National Guard/Handout via REUTERS

FROM THE SHELTER TO THE STADIUM

Harvey came on the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which killed about 1,800 around New Orleans. Then-U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration was roundly criticized for its botched early response to the storm.

Some of the tens of thousands of people forced into shelters by Harvey will attend the Astros game where Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner will throw out the first pitch and a moment of silence in planned for those who perished.

Sports have helped other cities rebound from catastrophe, such as when the New York Mets played the first baseball game in their damaged city 10 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, or when the New Orleans Saints returned to the Superdome in 2006 for football a year after Hurricane Katrina.

In the Harris County area of Clear Creek, the nearly 50 inches (127 cm) of rain that fell there equated to a once in a 40,000 year event, Jeff Lindner, meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District, said.

Some 440,000 Texans have already applied for federal financial disaster assistance, and some $79 million has been approved so far, Abbott said.

The storm shut about a fourth of U.S. refinery capacity, much of which is clustered along the Gulf Coast, and caused gasoline prices to spike to a two-year high ahead of the long Labor Day holiday weekend.

The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has risen more than 17.5 cents since the storm struck, hitting $2.59 as of Saturday morning, motorists group AAA said.

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

(Additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis, Ernest Scheyder, Ruthy Munoz, Peter Henderson and Andy Sullivan in Houston, Steve Holland in Washington, Julia Simon in New York, Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Jon Herskovitz and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Thousands flee Texas towns flooded by Harvey; gas prices spike

Lorenzo Salina helps a neighbor to clean a house damaged by Tropical Storm Harvey in East Houston, Texas, U.S. September 1, 2017.

By Emily Flitter and Peter Henderson

ORANGE, Texas/HOUSTON (Reuters) – Rescuers searched flooded sections of southeastern Texas for people trapped by Hurricane Harvey’s deluge on Friday, and Houston’s mayor warned residents of the city’s west that their neighborhoods may remain underwater for two weeks.

The storm, one of the costliest to hit the United States, has displaced more than 1 million people, with up to 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.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner called for voluntary evacuations of flooded homes, which he said may remain waterlogged as the Army Corps of Engineers continues to release water into the Buffalo Bayou to prevent dam and levee failures.

About 80 miles (130 km) east of the city, the Neches River, which flows into Beaumont and nearby Port Arthur, was forecast to crest on Friday.

Rescue officials were still working to determine the scope of flooding caused by releases from Orange County dams, said Rodney Smith, deputy chief of the Cedar Hill, Texas, Fire Department.

“A lot of what gives us a snapshot of what’s on the ground are 911 (emergency) calls,” Smith said, adding that about 80 rescue crews were rotating through the county. “If the water starts to recede, we’ll start doing searches door-to-door, block-to-block to see if anyone is still in their homes.”

Tiana Kelly, 22, was waiting in a shelter in Orange, Texas, after being rescued from her flooded street by National Guard troops in a special high-water truck at 2 a.m. Friday.

“I was checking on my neighbor’s dogs and I saw their flashlights, so I flashed my flashlight and they came and got us,” Kelly said as she sat with her 11-month old son, Kalameet, in her arms. “They told us there was an eight-foot flash (flood) that was supposed to come.”

Chemical maker Arkema SA said a fire started on Thursday in a truck storing chemicals at a flooded plant 25 miles (40 km) east of Houston had burned itself out by Friday, but that more blasts were likely in eight other trucks storing the same chemicals in the coming days. Police were enforcing 1.5-mile (2.4-km) exclusion zone around the Crosby, Texas facility.

With three months remaining in the official Atlantic hurricane season, a new storm, Irma, had strengthened into a Category 3 storm on 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.

Harvey shut about a quarter of U.S. refinery capacity, much of which is clustered along the Gulf Coast, and caused gasoline prices to spike to a two-year high ahead of the long Labor Day holiday weekend.

Harvey roared ashore a week ago as a Category 4 storm and the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in half a century. It dumped unprecedented amounts of rain and left devastation across more than 300 miles (480 km) of the state’s coast.

OIL RELEASED FROM FEDERAL SUPPLY

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

Supply concerns prompted the U.S. Energy Department to authorize the release of up to 4.5 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Several East Coast refineries have run out of gasoline, raising fears that travelers will face fuel shortages during the three-day holiday.

In major Texas cities including Dallas, there were long lines at gas stations.

The storm came on the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which killed about 1,800 around New Orleans. Then-U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration was roundly criticized for its botched early response to the storm.

Signaling that he did not want to be seen as repeating those mistakes, President Donald Trump plans a second visit to the region on Saturday.

“The people of Texas and Louisiana were hit very hard by a historic flood and their response taught us all a lesson, a very, very powerful lesson,” Trump said after meeting with charity organizations in the Oval Office. “There was no outbreak in crime. There was an outbreak of compassion only … and it really inspired us as a nation.”

U.S. first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. President Donald Trump receive an update on Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Lawmakers will replenish a federal disaster relief fund to keep aid flowing, but full assistance will come from Congress in installments, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said.

“The cash drain is fast. And so we’re going to have to do some quick responses,” Ryan said in an interview with radio station WCLO in his hometown Janesville, Wisconsin.

Moody’s Analytics estimated the economic cost from Harvey for southeastern Texas at $51 billion to $75 billion.

(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 Bill Trott and Jonathan Oatis)

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