A Rockport, Texas, official said Saturday that at least one person had died since Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm, passed through the town overnight.
Mayor C.J. Wax said at a news conference that the body was found after the storm had passed inland. He did not provide identification of the victim but said the death was connected to a house fire.
Texas officials said they expected to find further victims, however, as the storm moved inland, even after its downgrade.
WATCH: Harvey Downgraded to Tropical Storm, ‘Dramatic Flooding’ a Concern
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said during a news conference that “dramatic flooding” was still a major concern for authorities as areas along the coast were continuing to be drenched with rain.
“Our biggest concern is the possibility of 20 to 30 more inches of rain” in areas around Corpus Christi, he said.
The storm has already dumped about 20 inches of rain (more than 50 centimeters) in some places and is predicted to move through a 375-mile (600-kilometer) stretch of the Texas coast.
Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in southeast Texas, near the small town of Rockport not far from Corpus Christi, slamming the state’s Gulf Coast with strong winds and heavy rain. It was the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, with winds of 130 mph (209 kph) at the time of landfall.
Tens of thousands of Texas residents had already fled inland to avoid wind and flooding from the storm.
Abbott said more than 1,000 state personnel had been assigned to search-and-rescue operations, and they’ve already made several rescues, hoisting people into helicopters to avoid floodwaters.
Wax, in an interview Saturday morning with The Weather Channel, said the hurricane hit his town “right on the nose” and warned of “widespread devastation.”
He said some schools, homes and businesses had been severely damaged or destroyed.
By Saturday morning, more than 338,000 residents were without power due to the storm. Emergency services in the communities where Harvey made landfall were also reporting a loss of cellphone service.
Abbott said it would be “several days” before outages could be addressed because wind speeds in the area need to decrease before electric crews can safely make repairs.
Trump’s response
As Harvey began to push onto the Texas coast Friday evening, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had signed a federal disaster declaration for Texas.
On Saturday, Trump said he was monitoring the hurricane from Camp David, the presidential retreat near Washington, and that city, state and federal authorities were “working great together” to respond to the storm.
He commended the head of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, for his handling of the situation.
Authorities said the storm surge would gradually subside Saturday, but they still warned of “potentially catastrophic” rainfall likely to continue for several days.
Speaking on CNN, Long said his biggest concern was that some citizens along the coast had ignored warnings from officials and had chosen not to evacuate their homes.
“Storm surge has the highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most damage. On top of that, we are looking at a significant inland flood event over many counties,” he said.
The eye wall of Hurricane Harvey reaches Rockport, Texas:
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