New blast at Texas chemical plant flooded by Hurricane Harvey
Thick black smoke and towering orange flames shot up once again from a flooded Houston-area chemical plant where highly unstable compounds blew up after losing refrigeration.
It was the second day that flames and smoke could be seen at the Arkema plant in Crosby.
Containers of organic peroxides exploded and caught fire on Friday evening and Thursday morning, sending plumes of acrid smoke into the air.
Arkema says Harvey's floodwaters engulfed its backup generators and knocked out the refrigeration necessary to keep the compounds from degrading and catching fire.
The Environmental Protection Agency and local officials said an analysis of the smoke that came from the plant early on Thursday showed no reason for alarm.
No serious injuries were reported, but the authorities evacuated an area around the plant.
A week after it slammed into Texas, Harvey retained enough rain-making power to raise the risk of flooding as far north as Indiana.
In Houston, officials tried to safeguard parts of their devastated city by intentionally flooding others.
The mayor announced plans to release water from two reservoirs that could keep as many as 20,000 homes flooded for up to 15 days.
The authorities raised the death toll from the storm, while rescue workers conducted a block-by-block search of tens of thousands of Houston homes.
Three more people have been confirmed as Harvey-related deaths by the Harris County medical examiner.
The new entries in a list kept by the Harris County Institute for Forensic Sciences brings to 42 the confirmed death toll from Harvey, one week after it slammed into the middle Texas Gulf coast.
Harris County is home to Houston and has so far accounted for 28 deaths from the storm.
President Donald Trump has sent politicians a 7.9 billion dollar) request for an initial down payment for Harvey relief and recovery efforts.
The request, expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, would add 7.4 billion dollars to rapidly dwindling Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid coffers and 450 million dollars to finance disaster loans for small businesses.
The initial Harvey package is just the first instalment for immediate disaster response like housing assistance, cleanup and FEMA-financed home repairs. The White House says more than 436,000 households have registered for FEMA aid.
The request also reiterates the need for Congress to increase the government's 19.9 trillion dollar borrowing limit by the end of this month. Republicans are signalling that they may link the unpopular debt limit increase to Harvey relief.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said nothing will stop a Harvey aid bill from getting through Congress, and he did not foresee any problems with it passing, despite opposition to federal aid from some Republicans following Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
"It's going to take us time until we know the full scope of it," Mr Ryan said of Harvey's toll.
He said a storm the size of Harvey is unprecedented, and because of that it "deserves and requires federal response".
AP
