Harvey: 'We just don't know when it's going to end,' lawmaker says

Follow live updates: http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/28/us/texas-harvey-latest/index.html

What you should know now
* Flooding: The flooding in Houston and other parts of Texas is "unprecedented." And the situation could get even worse if a record-breaking 50 inches of rain falls in coming days.
* Louisiana: A state of emergency was just declared as the storm barrels toward New Orleans and surrounding areas.
* Help needed: The head of FEMA made a plea for assistance this morning: "We need citizens to get involved. This is a landmark event."
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Story below by CNN
Written by Eliott C. McLaughlin

Swollen rivers in east Texas aren't expected to crest until later this week, but federal officials are already predicting Tropical Storm Harvey will drive 30,000 people into shelters and spur 450,000 victims to seek some sort of disaster assistance.

And yet, forecasters say, more rain is coming. Lots more.
Several locales have already received 2 feet or more of rain, and forecasters say a reprieve won't arrive till week's end at the earliest. By then, rain totals could reach another 2 feet -- with isolated instances of 40 to 50 more inches -- along the upper Texas coast.

"This is a landmark event for Texas," FEMA Administrator Brock Long said. "Texas has never seen an event like this."
But, Long warned, Harvey presents a dynamic situation, and "every number we put out right now is going to change in 30 minutes."

Harvey will likely surpass 2008's Hurricane Ike and 2001's Tropical Storm Allison, two of the most destructive storms to hit the Gulf Coast in recent memory, he said. Around 13 million people from Corpus Christi to New Orleans were under flood watches and warnings as of Monday morning as Harvey's storm bands repeatedly pummel the same areas.
For state and federal officials working to mitigate Harvey's devastation, one of the more frustrating aspects of the storm is uncertainty.

"The word catastrophic does not appropriately describe what we're facing," said US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. "We just don't know when it's going to end."

Keep track of Harvey

Early Monday, Harvey was just barely clinging to tropical storm status, but the danger is far from over. The storm is forecast to head southeast toward the Matagorda Bay and Gulf of Mexico where it will pick up additional moisture before sliding back over Galveston and Houston, cities it's already hammered.

The slow-moving nature of the storm -- it's traveled at about 3 mph, human walking speed, since Friday's landfall -- has fueled the rain and flooding. Houston's William P. Hobby Airport recorded more than a foot of rain Saturday and 11 inches of rain Sunday, the two wettest days recorded since 1930.

Even when the rain is gone, dangers will persist, said National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini, because "the flooding will be very slow to recede."

Latest developments
-- Early tallies indicate at least 5,500 people have arrived at shelters in Houston and another 1,000 in Friendswood.
-- The average annual rainfall in Houston is 50 inches. The city has seen 25 inches of rain in two days. Another 25 could fall by Saturday.
-- Several cities, including Alvin, Friendswood, League City, Pasadena, Pearland, Seabrook and Webster, have issued 11 p.m. curfews.
-- A mandatory evacuation order was issued for areas along the Brazos River in Fort Bend County.
-- Dallas is opening a "mega-shelter" at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, but Mayor Mike Hutchins said, "We may have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of more individuals that will get bigger than this convention center."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/28/us/harvey-houston-texas-louisiana/index.html