Hurricane Harvey Has Backup In Irma, And She Looks Mean

HOUSTON, TX — Houston, we could have a problem. Maybe. While rescues still take place and Texas recovers from the wrath of wicked Hurricane Harvey, another monster storm is barreling toward the Caribbean Sea and United States coast. Hurricane Irma attained Category 3 status Thursday as she glides across the Atlantic Ocean. She's projected to enter the Caribbean by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, and her final destination is still a mystery to everyone except her.

Texas is still trying to recover from Harvey, which has been dubbed a 1,000-year flood by the University of Wisconsin’s Space Science and Engineering Center. Harvey dumped 50 inches of rain in some places and the storm was catastrophic from Beaumont to the Corpus Christi Bay

Center forecasters said Irma might experience "fluctuations in strength, both up and down," but will likely remain "a powerful hurricane for several days."

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"As we reach the midpoint of the hurricane season and with Hurricane Irma intensifying over the eastern tropical Atlantic, this is a good time for all of us to make some 'halftime adjustments,'" Dr. Rick Knabb from The Weather Channel said in a Thursday statement. "Find out your evacuation zone and plan your evacuation route today, go shopping now to restock supplies, and do everything you can to strengthen your home."

Harvey was merely a tropical depression leaving Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for the Gulf of Mexico's warm waters on Tuesday, Aug. 22. Three days before it hit, meteorologists projected the storm to make landfall as either a tropical storm or Category 1 storm, with most of the affected areas to receive only 3-5 inches of rain. That quickly changed as Harvey slowly churned in the warm waters before making landfall in Rockport, Texas, as a bully of a Category 4 and leveling entire communities.

Harvey moved eastward and sat atop the greater Houston area and poured trillions of gallons of rain, crippling the region and leaving 32,000 displaced in shelters.

Also of note, there's a small disturbance on the Gulf of Mexico that's developing a circular rotation, but even if it did become a tropical depression or storm, the path is projected to go east of Texas.

Top image: A truck passes down a road with rising water, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, in Sargent, Texas. Water from Hurricane Harvey is causing rivers in the area to rise.

AP Photo/Eric Gay