Harvey now classified as a Category 4 hurricane
Posted August 25, 2017 12:15 pm.
Last Updated August 25, 2017 6:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HOUSTON – The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Harvey has strengthened to a Category 4 storm.
The centre says Harvey has sustained wind speeds of 130 mph (209 kph) as the powerful storm churns off the Texas coast. Forecasters are labeling it a “life-threatening storm.”
The storm quickly grew Thursday from a tropical depression into a Category 1 hurricane, and then developed into a Category 2 storm early Friday. By Friday afternoon, it had become a Category 3 storm before strengthening to a Category 4. It’s forecast to make landfall in Texas late Friday or early Saturday.
The storm is 45 miles (72 kilometres) east of Corpus Christi.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is urging anyone who can to pack up and leave the city of Houston.
Abbott is calling on residents to put their lives first and their property second.
He has repeatedly warned that not enough people are leaving. But local officials in Houston says evacuations aren’t mandatory, and the city won’t get the dangerous storm surge that other areas are expecting.
