Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Rescuers began a block-by-block search of tens of thousands of Houston homes Thursday, pounding on doors and shouting as they looked for anyone - alive or dead - who might have been left behind in Harvey's fetid floodwaters, which have now damaged more than 87,000 homes and destroyed nearly 7,000 statewide. Elsewhere, the loss of power at a flood-crippled chemical plant set off explosions and a fire, and the city of Beaumont, near the Texas-Louisiana line, lost its public water supply.
In awe at the destruction 50 inches of rain did to East Texas and our fourth-largest city and in admiration as cable television showed countless hours of Texans humanely and heroically rescuing and aiding fellow Texans in the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Yet the destruction will not soon be repaired.
With all eyes focused, rightly, on Texas and the victims of Hurricane Harvey, it is easy to overlook the grave threat to constitutional democracy the president issued when he pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio last week. On its surface, the pardon looks like just another nod to rabid anti-immigration forces.
As thousands of flood victims in Texas face the harsh reality and devastation left behind by Hurricane Harvey, the focus now shifts to relief efforts -- including how the federal government will respond. One key player is Elaine Duke, acting head of the Department of Homeland Security, who is just one month into her new role.
As President Donald Trump considers whether to end the deferred action for childhood arrivals policy that allows immigrants who were brought into the U.S. in their youth to remain in the country and obtain work permits, his vice president says that the determination is one that Trump will make with "big heart." ABC News reported last week that the president was leaning toward terminating the program launched under President Barack Obama in 2012.
John Coffey, center, of Hatfield, PA joins protesters outside the studios of PBS-39 as Sen. Pat Toomey holds a town-hall meeting in Bethlehem, Pa., Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017, after months of public pressure from liberal opponents of President Trump that the senator has been hiding from his constituents. Attendance was limited to 54 people.
Fires and two explosions rocked a flooded Houston-area chemical plant early Thursday, sending up a plume that federal authorities described as "incredibly dangerous" and adding a potential new hazard to the aftermath of Harvey. The blasts at the Arkema Inc. plant, about 25 miles northeast of Houston, also ignited a 30- to 40-foot flame.
Two explosions were reported at a flooded Texas chemical plant near storm-battered Houston Thursday, just as the region began its slow recovery following Harvey's onslaught. Operators at the Arkema Inc facility said the Harris County Emergency Operations Center notified them at approximately 2:00am CDT , of "two explosions and black smoke" rising from the plant in Crosby, a town about 25 miles northeast of Houston.
Vice-President Mike Pence and other members of the White House staff will be here to tour the impacted areas, visit with those impacted from the devastation left behind by Hurricane Harvey and assess the damage first-hand.
A Tuesday appearance by President Donald Trump in a community near Corpus Christi, Texas became more of a Trump rally, according to a report Thursday in The Washington Post . Reporter Abby Phillip detailed the visit from the president, who was in the state addressing Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath.
As Harvey, the largest rainstorm in the history of the continental United States , floods homes in Texas and Louisiana, many Americans want to send money for relief efforts. The need for that help will be enormous: FEMA Administrator Brock Long has said more than 195,000 people already have registered for disaster assistance.
Hurricane Harvey pummeled the Houston area with an unprecedented four feet of rain, making it the most extreme rain event in U.S. history. Cars and houses are underwater, and thousands of people have needed or await rescue.
As high water spreads from Houston through Texas and Louisiana, authorities are bracing for an inevitable wave of fraud and other criminal activity set into motion by Harvey's punishing rains. In a warning to those who would seek to defraud the government and people wanting to help or seeking assistance, a dozen federal and state agencies were banding together to investigate and prosecute wrongdoers.
This administration is exhausting. Our current Congress is exhausting. Everything about living in this country right now is exhausting, and it never seems to end.
Now that the sun is finally shining and the murky, brown floodwaters are slowly receding in much of the Houston area, grim reality is setting in. In Texas, the official death toll stood at 23 on Wednesday, although authorities were investigating an additional 17 deaths to determine whether they were storm related.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie accused Texas Republicans of being "hypocrites" for seeking Hurricane Harvey federal aid after opposing similar measures in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. While many believe Texas should receive all the funding it needs, others are hesitant to write a blank check to a state that refused to do the same when other states were in need.
Workers begin repairs to a wall that was lost in the wake of Hurricane Harvey on Wednesday, in Rockport, Texas. A friend sent a photo to Jaime Botello's phone Wednesday that confirmed his fears: The house where his family has lived for 30 years is completely flooded.
Financial firms are sounding alarm bells and dusting off contingency plans over fears an increasingly dysfunctional U.S. Congress may fail to reach a deal to raise the country's debt limit. Several lobbyists, representing dozens of bankers, investors and credit rating agencies, told Reuters they are worried that dynamics at play in Washington - a bitterly divided Republican party and unpredictable President Donald Trump - could rule out a deal before an October deadline.