US: Up to 40,000 homes destroyed by Harvey

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) – Torrential downpours and mass flooding from Hurricane Harvey may have already destroyed an many as 40,000 homes in the Houston area, a county judge said Wednesday.

"Working with the federal government and the state government, we've got to get those people back into their normal lives as soon as possible," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said on morning talk show Good Morning America.

"We have people who are on the second flood of their homes. They're riding it out, and they're waiting for the waters to go down," according to Emmett, who is also the director of the county's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Harvey, now a tropical storm, made landfall in southwest Louisiana around 4 a.m. local time (0900GMT) after crippling Houston, Texas, and surrounding areas with flood waters.

Houston was battered by five consecutive days of rain that broke national records and overburdened the city's dam and levee system. Many neighborhoods were flooded in order to prevent some dams from catastrophically failing.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott estimated 24,000 National Guardsmen will be deployed to his state, up from the 14,000 currently there. In all, 33 counties are part of a federal disaster declaration, he said.

At least 19 people have been reported dead in the disaster, including a law enforcement officer, and more than 8,500 have been rescued in Houston alone.

A curfew issued Tuesday by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner will remain in effect, Police Chief Art Acevedo said.

Acevedo urged residents to refrain from returning home, at least for now, because of concerns live electric wires could lead to additinal deaths and injuries.

"We don’t want any more tragedies," he said.