National Hurricane Center: Rainfall from Harvey will cause 'life-threatening' flooding

Empty store shelves in Houston.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Hurricane Harvey, now a Category 1 with 85 mph winds, is gaining strength, and by the time it hits the middle Texas coast late Friday or early Saturday, it's expected to be a Category 3, with winds of at last 111 mph, the National Hurricane Center said Thursday night.

Harvey could make landfall in Corpus Christi, where Mayor Joe McComb has issued a voluntary evacuation order; it is now about 250 miles southeast of the city, moving 10 mph. Traffic is backed up going out of Corpus Christi, as residents try to leave before the storm, and the shelves at many grocery stores are empty, CNN reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.