Hurricane Harvey on Wednesday made a second landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border, lashing the axis with rainfalls.
The National Hurricane Centre in the United States said the landfall had been downgraded to a tropical storm, but still warned that it could wrought “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding.”
Houston and other cities across Texas are still reeling from the impact of massive downpours caused by Harvey went it first struck last weekend.
The latest storm landed around 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the U.S. NHC said.
Two people were killed when a tree fell onto a truck in Jackson County, Texas, an area that was “particularly hard hit” by the storm, local officials said.
Louisiana has reportedly ramped up its emergency resources, doubling up on high water vehicles, boats and helicopters on duty.
The storm has already set a record, pouring 51.88 inches of rain in some parts of Texas, according to the NHC.
Harvey was expected to move northeast, gradually weakening and becoming a tropical depression by Wednesday night.
Local officials in Texas have reported at least 30 confirmed and suspected flood-related deaths. A curfew has also been imposed in Houston from midnight to 5 a.m. until further notice.
Parts of the Houston area set a record for rainfall from a single storm anywhere in the continental United States, with a top reading on Tuesday afternoon, since the storm began, of 51.88 inches. Jeffrey Lindner, a meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District, said 25 to 30 percent of Harris County’s 1,800 square miles of land was flooded.
The Houston Police Department has rescued more than 3,500 people from flooding, Chief Art Acevedo said. The city fire chief, Samuel Peña, said his department had performed more than 400 rescues. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office did not have an updated figure, but said it was considerably higher than the roughly 2,200 rescues it reported on Monday.
President Donald Trump was on ground to access the damage in Texas on Tuesday, touring emergency efforts in Corpus Christi and Austin with his wife, Melania.
