Photo taken on Aug. 26, 2017 shows the trees destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in Houston, the United States. At least one person is dead and several others injured after Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the southern coast of the U.S. state of Texas Friday night. (Xinhua/Song Qiong)
There is at least one death report and several other injuries on Saturday after Hurricane Harvey downgraded to a tropical storm after its strong landfall Friday night.
At least one person is confirmed died in the town of Rockport located along the Gulf coastal area in Texas in south United States. There were also multiple injuries reported, according to local media.
It's not immediately clear of the direct cause of the death.
As Harvey downgraded, it was inflicting its damage across a wide swath of Southeast Texas, with tornadoes ripping apart homes and businesses, swollen bayous and rivers expected to reach flood stage.
There is threat of more rain in the offing, depending on the storm's slow track through the weekend.
In the live broadcast Saturday afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said there is the potential for "very dramatic flooding." Water is rising and will be swift moving, he said.
There were already 1,500 evacuees in state parks, while Abbott said he activated more than 1,800 service members to help with cleanup.
Bands of rain continue to pound the Houston area Saturday as the outer rings of Harvey moved inland from the coast.
In fear of flooding and tornadoes, several Houston suburb areas have issued mandatory evacuations. Several rivers in Houston suburb are expected to reach their highest measure level since 1960s.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced Saturday that inmates in three prisons were being evacuated because of anticipated flooding from a nearby rising river. About 4,500 inmates were being transferred by buses to facilities in East Texas.
Weather forecast showed there have been than 50 cm of rain in the coastal area of Texas since the landfall of Harvey and another 40 to 50 cm of rain is expected in the coming days.
Xinhua correspondent saw most of the shops, restaurants and gas stations in Houston are open on Saturday as usual, with some shops pile sand bags at the gate.
Throughout Friday night, some coastal counties experienced power outage, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. But more than 97 percent of Houston's grid still has power, according to CenterPoint's outage map.
