Brock Long, head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urged residents to heed warnings as "Texas is about to have a very significant disaster," he told MSNBC Friday.
Set to have max speeds of 120 mph winds, officials expects Hurricane Harvey to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday between Port O'Connor and Matagorda Bay, a stretch of coastline of about 70 miles from Corpus Christi, Texas.
— NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) August 25, 2017
According to the National Weather Service, the storm could cause "catastrophic" flooding with a 12-foot storm surge. With a state of emergency already declared in the Lone Star state, eight million people are currently under hurricane warnings, while nearly 1 million others are under tropical storm warnings.
— NASA (@NASA) August 25, 2017
"A lot of people are taking this storm for granted, thinking it may not pose much of a danger to them," Governor Greg Abbott told local Houston station KPRC. "Please heed warnings and evacuate as soon as possible."
This is the first time since 2008 that a hurricane has hit Texas. When Hurricane Ike struck the Texan coast, 21 people died.
