Photo: AFPRockport, Texas: The most powerful storm to hit Texas in more than 50 years has killed at least one person and is now threatening catastrophic flooding as search and rescue teams deploy to the hardest-hit zones, authorities said on Saturday. Heading inland, storm weakensHarvey weakened to tropical storm from hurricane strength on Saturday, the US National Hurricane Center said. “This is serious,” Turner said in a televised interview as Harvey turned into a tropical storm expected to linger over the mid Texas coast. Many fuel stations ran out of gasoline before the storm hit, and the US environmental protection agency loosened gasoline specifications late on Friday to reduce shortages. More than 45% of the country’s refining capacity is along the US Gulf Coast, and nearly a fifth of the nation’s crude is produced offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

Source: Mint August 27, 2017 03:56 UTC