Mayor: Houston beginning ‘recovery phase’

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) said Friday that the flooded city is “starting to move into the recovery phase” after Hurricane Harvey.

“There’s still many rescues in the region. But with regards to the city of Houston, we are starting to move into the recovery phase,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.” 

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Turner said that many of the rescue efforts are taking place in the city’s larger metropolitan area, with rescuers “going door to door” to make sure that no one is stranded inside their home.

Houston Mayor @SylvesterTurner says regional rescues are ongoing but Houston is transitioning “to a recovery phase” https://t.co/YnPIfl7IW2

— New Day (@NewDay) September 1, 2017

“The number of rescues in the city of Houston, that number has gone down dramatically,” he said. “Many of the rescues that you’re seeing are taking place outside the city of Houston.”

“And that will continue in every neighborhood from the inner city to outside of the inner city,” he said. 

The mayor also said that Houston’s electricity grid is slowly recovering and that fewer than 35,000 households are without power. The city’s transit system and garbage pickups have also resumed service.

“Even the zoo is opening up today in the city of Houston,” he added.

Harvey, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm, killed at least 40 people and potentially caused billions in property damage.