FEMA Task Force Leaves For Houston From Beverly Station

BEVERLY— With the Hurricane Harvey continuing, and flash floods threatening Houston, New England volunteers have been sent down from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 1 center in Beverly to assist with the search, rescue, and rebuilding efforts.

There are team members from all six New England States, according to Anita Arnum, the Assistant Program Manager for the Beverly's office.

Robert Picard is down in the Houston area with the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Red Cross, and told WBUR's Bob Oakes this morning, "It's the rain that's happening afterwards that just sitting there and dumping more water on it, on top of very flat land where water doesn't run well at the moment. It's an unbelievable scale of damage"

At least 10 people have been killed, and many more injured as the storm made landfall as a Category 4 Hurricane. Winds of almost 130 miles per hour have made evacuations difficult, and many residents are trapped in flooded homes with flash flood warnings.

Arnum told Patch, "A total of 19 [FEMA] personnel activated in response to Hurricane Harvey." Three are part of the incident support team working on the ground. Another 16 are part of the water rescue mission, and will arrive late Tuesday.

According to the National Weather Service, "Harvey has unloaded more than 9 trillion gallons of water, or a normal year’s worth of rain in under a week."

Photos courtesy of Massachusetts Task Force 1 (FEMA)