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Tropical Storm Harvey was upgraded to a hurricane Thursday -- and is headed toward the United States.

The storm is currently considered a Category 2 but is “on its way to becoming” Category 3, National Hurricane Center (NHC) spokesman Dennis Feltgen told Fox News.

There can be “very, very, serious damage” with a Category 3 storm, he explained, “even to well-built homes and businesses.”

With a storm of that potential magnitude expected, it’s important to know Hurricane Harvey’s path.

Where is Hurricane Harvey today?

Harvey was approximately 335 miles southeast of Corpus Christi forecasters said in a 2 p.m. ET NHC advisory on Thursday. Feltgen said that the storm is headed toward the middle Texas coastline at about 10 mph.


The storm’s maximum sustained winds were 85 mph on Thursday, according to the advisory.

When will the hurricane make landfall?


The storm is predicted to make landfall “very late Friday to early Saturday morning,” Feltgen said, adding that there’s no way to determine the exact time.

The NHC said Thursday that the storm will make landfall on the Texas coast.

Harvey will “be hanging inland over Texas” on Sunday and Monday, Feltgen said, with rains and “blustering winds” continuing.


What else should I know about the storm?

Speaking Thursday, Fox News' Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean said, “We haven’t had a major hurricane (cat 3 or higher) hit the U.S. since Wilma in 2005. Texas hasn’t had a hurricane make landfall since 2008, and the fact that this storm is expected to slow down and potentially bring epic floods to the coast from Louisiana to Texas is just dire.”

“Harvey is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 12 to 20 inches and isolated maximum amounts of 30 inches over the middle and upper Texas coast through next Wednesday,” the NHC advisory warned.

Feltgen also said that the storm isn’t a “dot on the map,” and there’s a “lot of impact” over a large area.

He gave an example that someone seeing a “skinny black line” showing the hurricane’s path over Corpus Christi, but who doesn’t live immediately in the city and thinks the storm wouldn’t affect them, would be wrong.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/24/hur...w.amp.html

Just heard the economic impact could top 40 billion dollars.

I can't imagine 30 inches of rain, especially in that region. Prayers for all impacted by this hurricane.

I have friends in San Antonio, so I've been monitoring this bad boy for a while.

It was a Cat 4 when it made landfall. I expect the coast of Texas to be devastated. Some areas were projected to have 4 FEET of rain.

Incredible!!

Granny Bear Wrote:I have friends in San Antonio, so I've been monitoring this bad boy for a while.

It was a Cat 4 when it made landfall. I expect the coast of Texas to be devastated. Some areas were projected to have 4 FEET of rain.

Incredible!!

4 Feet?! Wow! That's going to be devastating. Thoughts and prayers for your friends!

Thanks for keeping these news story updated on here Westside.
It makes for good topics of discussion.
Really brings the general discussion forum alive a bit

RunItUpTheGut Wrote:Thanks for keeping these news story updated on here Westside.
It makes for good topics of discussion.
Really brings the general discussion forum alive a bit

Thanks. I enjoy posting them. I hope it we keep posting them we can get more and more people to take part in the discussions.

Hurricanes are no joke. Hurricane Matthew hit last year here in North Carolina. The worst part is only beginning for those in Texas. The flooding is what causes the most problems.

Jarons Wrote:Hurricanes are no joke. Hurricane Matthew hit last year here in North Carolina. The worst part is only beginning for those in Texas. The flooding is what causes the most problems.

I read where there food shortages. A lot of people have probably lost their homes and everything they own. I feel for those people

This is the most disturbing image (see link below) that I've seen so far from Hurricane Harvey.

As Tropical Storm Harvey continued to pound southeastern Texas on Sunday with "catastrophic flooding," residents of a nursing home southeast of Houston had to be evacuated from waist-deep water.

Fifteen senior citizens were evacuated from the La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson, David Popoff, the city’s emergency management coordinator, told the Galveston County Daily News.

Popoff told the newspaper all 15 were rescued by helicopter.

“We were air-lifting grandmothers and grandfathers,” Popoff said.

A picture of the residents sitting in waist-deep water shared to Twitter Sunday went viral after it was posted by Timothy McIntosh, who told the newspaper his mother-in-law owns the assisted-living home.

His wife, Kimberly McIntosh, said her mother sent the picture at 9 a.m. this morning.

“She said it was a disaster and they were hoping the national guard would come,” Kimberly McInstosh said.I

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/27/har...scued.html

Harvey is soaking refineries along the Gulf Coast, leading to higher prices at the pump. Gasoline futures rose nearly 3 percent Monday.

The storm could also put a kink in the shipment of consumer goods.

Harvey, which hit the coast as a Category 4 hurricane, will likely affect the South Texas economy for months. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, predicted that the region's economic output will be cut about 1 percent, or $7 billion to $8 billion. It will recover, he said, helped by money from insurance payments and government aid to rebuild.

Here's a look at the effects on key industries:

— REFINING: Prices are expected to spike over the next week or more as about 10 refineries representing more than 15 percent of the nation's refining capacity are shut down.

Nearly 3 billion barrels of the 18 billion U.S. daily refining capacity has been knocked out. Most of the shut-downs have been precautionary, with only a few reports of minor flooding.

But the slow-moving nature of the storm means it could cause shutdowns to linger and leave more-lasting damage, said Goldman Sachs analyst Damien Courvalin. Another 850,000 barrels per day of capacity remains under threat, he said.

Exxon Mobil closed its huge Baytown refinery, which lies along the Houston Ship Channel, 25 miles east of the city. The plant can handle up to 584,000 barrels of oil per day. It turns that into gasoline and chemicals used in everything from shrink wrap to car tires.

Several other refineries closed, including a Royal Dutch Shell plant along the ship channel, and several in Corpus Christi, Texas, that are operated by Valero Energy, Citgo and Flint Hills Resources.

Gas stations in Houston are running dry. Rick Joswick, an analyst with S&P Global Platts' PIRA Energy, said it remains to be seen whether distribution terminals were damaged, which could crimp supplies beyond Houston.

— OIL AND GAS: Oil companies have removed workers from about 100 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico since late last week. About 19 percent of oil production in the Gulf has been stopped, but that is down from nearly 25 percent on Saturday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. The Gulf accounts for about one-fifth of U.S. oil production.

— SHIPPING: All major ports in the Houston and Corpus Christi areas remained closed Monday and might not open for several days until the week.

That would affect barge shipments of gasoline to the East Coast — if refineries have resumed operating. Several large container ships that were headed to Houston anchored off Mexico or Louisiana to wait out the storm. The port of Houston also handles export shipments of grain.

The ports can't reopen until the U.S. Coast Guard and ship pilots are confident shipping channels are clear and not obstructed by silt washed into bays by the heavy rain. Silting has been reported near the ports of Freeport and Houston, according to S&P Global Platts.

— TRAVEL: Houston's two big airports are expected to remain closed to all but relief flights until later this week, with runways flooded and nearby roadways under water.

More than 1,600 flights on Monday were canceled, the bulk of them at Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport, according to tracking service FlightAware.com.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Bush Intercontinental was expected to reopen Thursday and Hobby on Wednesday. Those targets might be optimistic. Bill Begley, a spokesman for the airports, said they would not reopen until officials are certain they're safe, "and I don't even want to put a deadline on that."

Exceptions have been made for flights carrying people who were trapped at the airports when the storm hit. United Airlines took 272 passengers to Chicago on Sunday and planned two more such flights Monday, said Charles Hobart. Two Spirit Airlines planes took 180 passengers to Chicago and Detroit, and Southwest flew 486 passengers to Dallas on Sunday aboard five planes, according to airline and airport officials.

— INSURANCE: Property damage from Harvey will likely be counted in the tens of billions of dollars, according to Moody's Analytics, but the insurance industry will be on the hook for only a small portion of that. Much of the burden will fall on taxpayers.

AIR Worldwide, which advises companies on managing risk, estimates that Harvey caused between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion in wind and storm damage. Another analytical firm, CoreLogic, forecasts between $1 billion and $2 billion. Risk Management Solutions says it could be $6 billion, but likely much less.

Don Griffin, a vice president at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, said insurance companies are well capitalized and able to pay claims.

Those estimates, however, don't include damage from flooding because that is usually covered by federal flood insurance, not homeowner policies.

AIR estimates that $60 billion in property in Harris County, where Houston is located, is insured by the national flood program, which already owes the U.S. Treasury more than $20 billion for money it borrowed to cover past storms.

— BANKING: Many businesses in the Houston area are flooded, including banks.

"In areas without power, it is back to a cash-only economy in terms of securing food, medical supplies and other necessities," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

Many banks and credit unions will set up mobile branches to let cu
stomers get cash or apply for loans, he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/amp/Business/wireS...s-49476308

Harvey has made reentry this time is Louisiana.