A MUM-TO-BE, stuck in rising floodwaters in the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, has live tweeted her desperate pleas to be rescued.
A resident of Port Arthur, the latest US city to be inundated, sent out a series of gut wrenching Tweets on Wednesday afternoon as her hopes of rescue began to fade.
At one point Haley Davis said, “I’m trying to stay calm but the water is coming in fast.”
The gulf states of the US continue to be savaged by impact of Hurricane Harvey with “catastrophic” rain forecast for a strip of coast between Houston and Louisiana.
Hurricane Harvey has flooded a Hurricane Katrina memorial in Louisiana. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Shawn FINK.Source:AFP
On Wednesday, a shivering three-year-old girl was found clinging to the body of her drowned mother in a rain-swollen canal in Beaumont, south east Texas. Police suspect the body was of the child’s mother who tried to carry her child to safety from the floods.
So far, 23 people are confirmed to have died during, or following the hurricane.
Meanwhile, a firebrand US commentator has been criticised for saying it was more likely the floods were God’s punishment for the election of a gay politician than being due to climate change.
Over a period of seven hours beginning on Wednesday afternoon, Ms Davis tweeted her plight from her home in Port Arthur, close to the Louisiana border.
“Lord please! If you have a boat please come get me and my family I’m trying to stay calm but the water is coming in at a fast rate,” she wrote.
People began tweeting back emergency numbers but it appeared Ms Davis couldn’t summon help.
“Water is now waist level and I still have not found any help. This is crazy,” she wrote. “Please tell me this is a joke!”
my phone is on 9% I'm 35— J. (@haleeyjay_) August 30, 2017
Wks pregnant ! Please keep calling for me water is waist deep 2815 34th street 77640 Port Arthur Tx HaleyDavis
After four hours with no help, she began to become increasingly frantic.
“My phone is on nine per cent. I’m 35 weeks pregnant! Please keep calling for me — water is waist deep.”
Other Twitter users tried to assure her they had called rescue teams on her behalf.
Finally, after seven hours, Ms Davis tweeted her and her family had been found.
She wasn’t the only person to head to social media with hundreds of Port Arthur residents desperate to be saved.
The flooding has been so bad in Port Arthur even a rescue centre had to be evacuated after it became inundated with water.
US conservative commentator Ann Coulter has come under fire for her take on Hurricane Harvey.
On Tuesday, she sent out a Tweet referring to former openly gay Houston Mayor Annise Parker.
“I don’t believe Hurricane Harvey is God’s punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor. But that is more credible than ‘climate change’.”
The remarks didn’t go down well.
A spokeswoman for the US Environmental Protection Agency rebuked Coulter for “attempts to politicise an ongoing tragedy.”
Ms Parker hasn’t responded directly to Coulter’s tweeted. But she has posted a picture of herself helping at a rescue centre.
Harvey is currently leaving Texas and heading into Louisiana before likely hitting Mississippi on Thursday, US time.
The storm has weakened, with winds dropping to 64kmkm/h from 72kmkm/h, and may be downgraded to a tropical depression.
The threat of heavy rains for Houston has ended, but catastrophic and potentially deadly flooding will continue around Houston, Beaumont, Port Arthur and Louisiana for the rest of the week.
Forecasters are looking at a weather system off the Mexican coast just south of Texas that they say has a one in five chance of developing into something tropical in the next five days.
— with AP.
Mum to be Haley Davis at her baby shower just days prior to Hurricane Harvey. Picture: Twitter
0 comments:
Post a Comment