VOA常速英語：“我命令的每一項資產(chǎn)”都可用于德克薩斯和路易斯安那州
President Donald Trump pledged Monday that "every asset at my command" would be available to Texas and Louisiana as they dealt with catastrophic floods from what was left of Hurricane Harvey.
Trump said at a White House news conference that people in flood-stricken areas could expect "very rapid action" from Congress to get the funding they need to clean up and rebuild.
"You're going to have what you need and it's going to go fast," the president reassured flood victims. He said he had spoken to many lawmakers who "feel for" Texans.
Trump will visit southeast Texas on Tuesday and said he might go back to Texas and Louisiana on Saturday to see that officials have all they need. He has already declared 18 Texas counties and parts of neighboring Louisiana a disaster area, making them eligible for federal help. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared 54 counties as disaster areas, making them eligible for state aid.
Trump said 8,000 federal workers were on the ground in Texas, including many with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
FEMA chief Brock Long said at a Monday news conference that the agency was going to be in Texas "for several years."
"We're anticipating over 30,000 people being placed in shelters temporarily, to basically stabilize the situation and provide for their care," he said, adding that the agency was "already deploying life-essential commodities."
Long said FEMA was bracing for one of the longest periods of housing recovery ever seen.
The latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center brought little good news for southeastern Texas and the flooded city of Houston, America's fourth-largest metropolis.
Tropical Storm Harvey was creeping along at a scant 3.7 mph (6 kph), sucking in warm Gulf moisture as it lingered along the coast.
Houston and parts of southwestern Louisiana can expect about 20 more inches (50 centimeters) of rain through Thursday, along with high winds and possible tornadoes. The region has already seen more than 23½ inches (60 centimeters) of rain in some places.
Highways and interstates normally filled with cars are impassable rivers. Dirty brown water covers downtown Houston sidewalks, which would normally be filled with office workers, shoppers and tourists.
Officials said they had rescued 2,000 people so far but still had "critical rescue requests" to handle.
"The goal is rescue," said Mayor Sylvester Turner. "Our focus is getting people out of the stressful situation they're in." He said 5,500 people had been moved to shelters.
So far, six deaths in Houston and surrounding areas have been blamed on the storm.
Hundreds of rescue operations have taken place throughout the area, with crews in helicopters, in boats and on foot, wading through floodwaters. Volunteers have joined police, fire and medical crews, as well as the National Guard.
For those stranded in flooded parts of the city, emergency officials said no one should seek refuge in the attics of their homes, calling it a trap. Their advice: Climb onto the roof and wave a white sheet.
Aircraft continued to be in the skies over Houston and surrounding areas, searching for people marooned atop their homes. Hundreds of boats were being used to search for flood victims as well.
People who thought they might be able to walk to safely through water only waist- or chest-deep in their neighborhoods were warned to resist the urge to test strong currents.
Coast Guard Commandant Paul Zukunft said rescue workers were checking Google maps "to see where calls are coming from. We want to save lives."
Abbott told reporters he had deployed the entire Texas National Guard — 15,000 members.
He heaped praise on local leaders along the Texas Gulf Coast, calling them "humane, courageous, and heroic." He said the way people got through the storm and the fact that that so many lives had been saved were "remarkable."
"While the hurricane-force winds have diminished, I want to stress that we are not out of the woods yet," said acting U.S. Homeland Security chief Elaine Duke. "Not by a long shot. Harvey is still a dangerous and historic storm."
Duke said rivers in south Texas "won't crest until later this week."
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said, "The storm is more or less stationary, but to the extent that it's moving, it's actually moving towards the east, in our direction, and that makes this obviously a dangerous situation for our state."
U.S. Weather Prediction Center lead forecaster Patrick Burke told VOA, "We've never seen a storm like this. We've never seen these rainfall amounts over such a large area, and so the damage is already catastrophic and unfortunately is going to continue to be catastrophic for days to come."
With the storm bringing band after band of heavy rain over the region, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced early Monday that it was beginning the controlled release of water from two reservoirs in order to help prevent them from failing and to reduce the risk of further flooding. The releases will continue for weeks.
Several Houston-area oil refineries shut down on Sunday as the storm continued. The closures take roughly 12 percent of U.S. fuel-making capacity offline, compounding concerns about fuel shortages and higher gasoline prices.
Harvey was the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in more than a decade. But Trump said tragic times bring out the best of American strength and resolve.
"We will come out of this bigger, better, stronger than ever before," he said.
VOA's Celia Mendoza and Victor Beattie contributed to this report.
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