Hurricane Harvey: What to watch for

The Texas coast is preparing for Hurricane Harvey’s landfall on Friday, bracing for a storm as powerful and dangerous as any that’s hit the United States in more than a decade. 

Harvey is a Category 3 storm, the National Weather Service said on Friday afternoon, packing heavy rains and winds greater than 120 miles per hour. 

When the storm makes landfall overnight, it will be the first major hurricane to hit the United States since 2005. 

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It will present a major leadership test for President Trump and his administration, hammer Texas and create problems that could ripple across the United States.

Here’s what to watch for as Harvey makes landfall.

Severe flooding, wind damage and power outages: Forecasts indicate Harvey will pack a punch in Texas, where extreme flooding and high storm surge appear likely to inundate coastal communities from Corpus Christi to Houston. 

The National Hurricane Center expects heavy rainfall of 15-25 inches and amounts as high as 35 inches in some areas. Government warnings about the storm are dramatic. There could be “life-threatening” storm surge and “catastrophic” flooding in parts of the state, the Hurricane Center said, and locals have been told to avoid everything from low-lying roadways to displaced alligators. 

As of Friday afternoon, Harvey was producing maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour, which are likely to damage property and threaten the local electric grid. A group of researchers predicted the storm could knock out power for up to 2.9 million people.

The National Weather Service on Friday warned that “the economic impact [of Harvey] will likely be devastating.”  

Disrupted oil and natural gas production: Harvey is passing through an area of the Gulf of Mexico that contains major oil and natural gas drilling operations and nearly one-third of the nation’s oil refining capacity. 

The storm has already knocked some drilling rigs offline and threatens other operations, and experts say gasoline prices are likely to rise because of it. 

Federal regulators on Thursday estimated that more than 21.5 percent of total Gulf of Mexico oil production and 23.25 percent of natural gas production had already gone offline, with more likely to follow as the storm moves closer to shore. 

Several refineries in the region are also shutting down, and analysts told The Associated Press that gas prices could rise between 5 cents and 15 cents per gallon as the storm moves inland. If Harvey knocks a major refinery offline for a prolonged period of time, those prices could spike by up to 25 cents per gallon by Labor Day weekend. 

Closed shipping ports: Officials have shutdown several key shipping ports in Texas, likely disrupting commerce in the region. 

Officials closed off cargo facilities at the Port of Houston, one of the busiest ports in the United States, as of noon Friday. 

The Port of Corpus Christi was closed to shipping traffic by Friday morning, and isn’t expected to reopen until Tuesday at the earliest, local shippers reported.

The Coast Guard has also restricted ship movements for ports in Galveston, Freeport and Texas City, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday.

Shuttered shipping ports could delay cargo operations and oil movement in the United States and abroad. 

Travel gridlock for evacuated residents, commuters: More than 4.6 million people live in the direct path of the storm, White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said on Friday, meaning roads along evacuation routes could be gridlocked heading into the weekend. 

Mandatory evacuation orders cover more than a dozen communities along the Gulf coast, and inland cities like San Antonio are expected to serve as safe havens for Texans. 

The storm is likely to snarl transportation options for others. Houston’s Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports will remain open through the storm, but the airports are already reporting dozens of delays and cancellations.

At least half a dozen major airlines have issued travel advisories for the area and waived fees for changing tickets. And the Federal Railroad Administration has declared the storm an “emergency event” for rail operations in the state. 

Unexpected shifts in forecast: Weather forecasts predict Harvey will make landfall near Corpus Christi overnight Friday, before stalling over the state.

But officials said they are also preparing for the possibility that the storm’s path shifts in unexpected ways, impacting communities like Houston, low-lying areas of Louisiana and even New Orleans.

Experts and lawmakers have long warned a direct hit to Houston by a major hurricane would be devastating, both locally and for the American economy. Local officials have called for construction of a seawall — nicknamed the “Ike Dike” after 2008’s Hurricane Ike — to protect the region from a major storm, but the project hasn’t gotten off the ground. 

Officials have declared an emergency in New Orleans ahead of expected flooding from the storm. Bossert said Friday that the Army Corps of Engineers was working to provide extra electricity to pumping stations designed to protect the city, which sits below sea level, from severe flooding. 

Among Trump’s concerns ahead of the storm, Bosset said, “was not only that the people in harm’s way in Texas be prepared and be evacuated as appropriate, but that the people in Louisiana, should the forecast wobble in any direction, also be prepared.”

He added, “Those were his three concerns: New Orleans, Texas and life, safety and evacuations.”