Houston saw clear skies on Wednesday as water levels crested and floodwaters began to slowly recede, but Harvey, downgraded to a tropical depression late Wednesday, continued to bring new flooding to the east of Houston and into Louisiana. The deaths attributed to Harvey reached at least 38, and search-and-rescue teams expect to find more bodies as the waters recede. Heartbreaking stories are emerging from Houston — like a young girl who survived floodwaters by clinging to her mother, who did not survive, and the three brothers and two friends whose boat got swept toward downed power lines during their third rescue outing, with two of them dead and two missing.
In nearby Crosby, Texas, a flooded chemical plant owned by French company Arkema is expected to explode, prompting an evacuation of a 1.5-mile radius. About 100 miles east of Houston, small cities like Port Arthur and Beaumont, and towns like Orange and Newton, were largely underwater, with bowling alleys becoming refuge points and rescue crews trying to find dry shelters for displaced residents. "Our whole city is underwater right now," Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman said on Facebook. Firefighters from as far away as Florida stepped in to help.
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