哈維緩慢撤離德州,洪水威脅不減

The city of Houston will finally get some relief from historic rain Wednesday as Tropical Storm Harvey pulls away from east Texas and makes another landfall in neighboring Louisiana.

Forecasters expected the Houston area to get about two centimeters of new rainfall Wednesday and to have sunny skies and hot temperatures by Friday. The region will still be dealing with widespread flooding from the slow-moving storm that has dropped more than 130 centimeters in some places since Thursday.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm could drop 15 to 30 centimeters of rain on southwestern Louisiana as it finally moves inland.

Local and state officials in Texas said rescuers had taken more than 13,000 people from flooded homes, and thousands of people were staying in shelters set up at Houston's convention center, the arena for the Houston Rockets basketball team and the stadium where the Houston Texans football team plays.

With so many people away from their homes and scattered reports of looting, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner instituted an overnight curfew starting Wednesday morning in order to prevent "potential criminal acts."

At least 13 deaths have been reported in connection with the storm. Authorities have not yet confirmed a number that high, but have said casualty figures could rise once the floodwaters begin to recede.

Elaine Duke, the acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said during a visit to Texas on Tuesday that the biggest challenge remains search and rescue efforts.

Duke was one of several officials who flew to Texas along with President Donald Trump to meet with local and state leaders and survey the response to the storm. Trump said the recovery effort, which has been estimated at tens of billions of dollars, will probably be one of the most expensive the United States has seen.

Visiting an emergency operations center in the Texas capital, Austin, Trump said his administration and Congress are going to come up with the "right solution" to help storm victims.

Trump also went to Corpus Christi, where the storm hit the Texas coast, and said there he wants the federal government's response to be "better than ever before."

The president waved a Texas state flag as he spoke to cheering supporters, calling the storm "epic." He added, " it happened in Texas, and Texas can handle anything."熱帶風暴哈維星期三將離開德克薩斯州東部，休斯頓終於可以從這場歷史性的暴雨中得到一絲喘息的機會。與此同時，預計哈維將在鄰州路易斯安那再次登陸。

天氣預報說，休斯頓地區星期三還將有大約兩釐米的降雨，星期五將晴天高溫。自上週四以來，移動緩慢的哈維給該地區某些地方帶來了130多釐米的降雨，留下了是滾滾的洪水。

國家颶風中心說，哈維最終進入內地前，可能還會給路易斯安那州西南部帶來15到30釐米的降雨。

德克薩斯州地方和州政府官員說，救援人員已經從被淹沒的房子裏救出了1萬3千多人，還有數以千計的人被安置在休斯頓會議中心、休斯頓火箭隊主場和休斯頓德克薩斯人橄欖球隊球場。

由於很多人棄家而去，而且出現了打劫的零星報道，所以休斯頓市長特納宣佈，從星期三早上開始實施宵禁，以防止“潛在的犯罪行爲”發生。

據報道，哈維颶風已經導致至少13人喪生。有關當局尚未確認這一數字，但表示，隨着洪水的減退，傷亡人數還可能進一步上升。

美國國土安全部代理部長杜克星期二前往德克薩斯州視察時說，最大的挑戰還是搜救工作。

杜克是隨同美國總統川普飛往德克薩斯州視察的幾位官員之一。川普說，這次災後恢復工作可能是美國曆史上最昂貴的。

川普在德州州府奧斯丁一個緊急救援中心視察時說，政府和國會將制定“正確的方案”來幫助災民。

川普在哈維颶風首先登陸的科珀斯克里斯蒂市（Corpus Christi）說，他要求政府的災後恢復工作“比以往任何時候都好”。

川普揮舞着德克薩斯州的州旗對支持者說，哈維颶風是歷史性的風暴，“但是，它發生在德克薩斯州，而德克薩斯可以應付任何局面”。