Warnings Of 'Catastrophic Flooding' As Tropical Storm Harvey Lingers Over Texas

Tropical Storm Harvey remains a serious threat as it continues a slow march across Texas, killing at least one person, even as the National Hurricane Center downgraded it from a hurricane on Saturday.

While the wind was weakening, the rain proved to be relentless.

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When Harvey hit land about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi around 10 p.m. CT Friday, it was a massive Category 4 storm bringing winds of 130 mph, says The Associated Press. It was the strongest hurricane to hit Texas in decades.

The storm Saturday

It took Harvey just a few hours to drop to a Category 1 hurricane, and by around 1 p.m. CT Saturday, it had been downgraded to a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

By 7 a.m. CT Saturday, Harvey was centered less than 50 miles from the middle Texas coast near the city of Victoria, Brennan said, and moving north-northwest at around 6 mph.

"The center of Harvey is going to meander here over the middle Texas coast basically through the weekend and into the early and middle portions of next week and that is going to result in catastrophic flooding — life-threatening flooding," Brennan said. "We're seeing tide levels, storm surge inundation reports, of still 4 to 5 feet above ground level among portions of the middle Texas coast."

In the small coastal city of Rockport, Texas, a local county judge said one person has died as a result of the storm. The judge also said that the number of injured had risen to about 12 to 14 individuals.

Earlier in the day, City Manager Kevin Carruth told media outlets at least 10 people were being treated for storm-related injuries. Among the injured were people at a senior housing complex where the roof had collapsed. A local jail was serving as a makeshift hospital, Carruth said.

On Saturday, more than 300,000 Texas residents were without power, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

At a press conference Saturday around 1 p.m. CT, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expanded a disaster declaration to 50 counties.

"The state and various agencies remain very active in the search and rescue process and that will be one of the foremost tasks that we undertake in the coming days," the governor said.

On the ground in Corpus Christi, Texas

Corpus Christi had already seen around 20 inches of rain by midday Saturday, according to Abbott.