Evacuees escaping the floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center that has been set up as a shelter in Houston, Texas, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. (AP Photo/LM Otero) (Associated Press) 
 
 HOUSTON (AP) — Major dangers for the U.S. Gulf Coast area loomed after an explosion at a Texas chemical plant early Thursday and the threat of major flooding further east near the Texas-Louisiana line as Harvey's floodwaters began receding in the Houston area after five days of torrential rain. 
 
 Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, struggled with rising water as the area was pounded with what remained of the weakening storm, while Houston's fire department said it would begin a block-by-block search Thursday of thousands of flooded homes. Assistant Fire Chief Richard Mann said the searches were to ensure "no people were left behind." 
 
 The confirmed death toll climbed to at least 31, including six family members — four of them children — whose bodies were pulled Wednesday from a van that had been swept off a Houston bridge into a bayou. 
 
 "Unfortunately, it seems that our worst thoughts are being realized," Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said after the van that disappeared over the weekend was found in 10 feet of muddy water. 
 
 The Houston-area chemical plant that lost power after Harvey engulfed the area in extensive floods was rocked by two explosions early Thursday, the plant's operator said. The Arkema Inc. plant had been left without refrigeration for chemicals that become volatile as the temperature rises. 
 
 The Harris County Sheriff's Office said in a tweet that a deputy was taken to the hospital after inhaling fumes. Nine other deputies drove themselves to the hospital as a precaution. 
 
 The company shut down the Crosby site before Harvey made landfall last week, but a crew of 11 had stayed behind. That group was removed and residents living within a 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) radius were told to evacuate Tuesday after the plant lost power. 
 
 Another threat was emerging east of Houston where weather conditions deteriorated close to the Louisiana line. 
 
 Beaumont and Port Arthur worked to evacuate residents after Harvey completed a U-turn in the Gulf of Mexico and rolled ashore early Wednesday for the second time in six days. It hit southwestern Louisiana as a tropical storm with heavy rain and winds of 45 mph. 
 
 When Harvey paid its return visit to land, it hit near Cameron, Louisiana, about 45 miles from Port Arthur. 
 
 Port Arthur found itself increasingly isolated as floodwaters swamped most major roads out of the city. 
 
 More than 500 people — along with dozens of dogs, cats, a lizard and a monkey — took shelter at the Max Bowl bowling alley in the city, said the establishment's general manager, Jeff Tolliver. 
 
 "The monkey was a little surprising, but we're trying to help," he said. 
 
 Floodwaters also toppled two oil storage tanks in South Texas, spilling almost 30,000 gallons of crude. It was not immediately clear if any of the spilled oil was recovered. More damage to the oil industry infrastructure is expected to emerge as floodwaters recede. 
 
 Forecasters downgraded Harvey to a tropical depression late Wednesday from a tropical storm but it still has lots of rain and potential damage to spread, with 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) forecast from the Louisiana-Texas line into Tennessee and Kentucky through Friday. Some spots may get as much as a foot, raising the risk of more flooding. 
 
 For much of the Houston area, forecasters said the rain is pretty much over. 
 
 "We have good news," said Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District. "The water levels are going down." 
 
 Houston's two major airports were up and running again Wednesday. Officials said they were resuming limited bus and light rail service as well as trash pickup. 
 
 At Hermann Park, south of downtown, children glided by in strollers and wagons, joggers took in midday runs and couples walked beside cascading fountains and beneath a sparkling sun. People pulled into drive-thru restaurants and emerged from a store with groceries. 
 
 At the same time, many thousands of Houston-area homes are under water and could stay that way for days or weeks. And Lindner cautioned that homes near at least one swollen bayou could still get flooded. 
 
 Officials said 911 centers in the Houston area are getting more than 1,000 calls an hour from people seeking help. 
 
 Altogether, more than 1,000 homes in Texas were destroyed and close to 50,000 damaged, and over 32,000 people were in shelters across the state, emergency officials reported. About 10,000 more National Guard troops are being deployed to Texas, bringing the total to 24,000, Gov. Greg Abbott said. 
 
 In Orange, Texas, about 30 miles east of Beaumont, residents of a retirement home surrounded by thigh-deep water were rescued by National Guardsmen and wildlife officers, who carried them from the second floor and put them aboard an airboat. 
 
 Harvey initially came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane in Texas on Friday, then went back out to sea and lingered off the coast as a tropical storm for days, inundating flood-prone Houston. 
 
 Harvey's five straight days of rain totaled close to 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S. 
 
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 Associated Press writers Frank Bajak, Matt Sedensky and Michael Graczyk in Houston; Diana Heidgerd and David Warren in Dallas; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; and Tammy Webber in Chicago contributed to this report. 
 
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 Sign up for AP's daily newsletter showcasing our best all-formats reporting on Harvey and its aftermath: http://apne.ws/ahYQGtb . ||||| East Texas county tells residents 'GET OUT OR DIE!' 
 
 Emergency Management officials in Tyler County in East Texas posted a harrowing Facebook message Wednesday evening warning residents of imminent and deadly flooding. 
 
 "The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has advised the Tyler County office of Emergency Management that the flood gates were opened to 100 feet at 3:00 pm CSDST," wrote Tyler County Judge Jacques Blanchette. "River levels will rise to near seventy nine feet. With additional rain fall accumulations, a potential elevation could reach near eighty two feet." 
 
 The alarming message said residents near the area must evacuate immediately. 
 
 STORM DEATHS: Death toll from Harvey flooding exceeds 30 
 
 "Anyone who chooses to not heed this directive cannot expect to be rescued and should write their social security numbers in permanent marker on their arm so their bodies can be identified," wrote Blanchette. "The loss of life and property is certain." 
 
 The emergency advisory ended with the words "GET OUT OR DIE!" along with a phone number for anyone needing boat assistance or rescue. 
 
 Tropical Storm Harvey made a second landfall in Louisiana early Wednesday. Along the way, it has dumped rain on east Texas communities, including Tyler County. 
 
 AFTER HARVEY: How to help victims of the Texas storm 
 
 According to the National Weather Service, communities in Southeast Texas received between 8-15 inches of rainfall as Harvey slowly made its way to Louisiana. 
 
 In Harris County, an average of 27 inches fell on the region between Friday and Monday, with some spots receives a record 50 inches. 
 
 See photos of the destruction and flooding caused by Harvey above. ||||| This 2014 photo provided by Virginia Saldivar shows her grandchildren Daisy, from left, Xavier and Dominic Saldivar, three of the four children presumed dead after their van sank into Greens Bayou on... (Associated Press) 
 
 HOUSTON (AP) — 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. 
 
 Harvey is about to release its dead. 
 
 In Texas, the official death toll surpassed 30 on Wednesday and was expected to climb as authorities investigated several other deaths to determine whether they were storm-related. Officials fear that the number of fatalities will climb sharply in coming days as neighbors, emergency workers and family members search for the missing — and discover the bodies of people trapped in waterlogged homes or encased in underwater graves inside cars. And the death toll might rise even further in the recovery phase, from car crashes, carbon monoxide poisoning or other accidents during cleanup. 
 
 "Historically all estimates of deaths are wrong in the beginning," said Craig Fugate, who was the Federal Emergency Management Agency director from 2009 until earlier this year. 
 
 Already, the nation is shocked by the horrors revealed as the storm moves out of the area and east toward Louisiana and points north. 
 
 The first confirmed fatality came early: A man in the Gulf coastal city of Rockport was killed in a fire late Friday as the storm raged ashore. 
 
 On Wednesday, officials located a submerged van that seven members of a Houston family had been traveling in when it was swept off a bridge and into a storm-ravaged bayou. Samuel Saldivar told police he was trying to bring his elderly parents and his brother's four grandchildren to safety from their flooded home on Sunday when the van he was driving was tossed by a strong current into the bayou as it crossed the bridge. He escaped through a window but the six others were trapped when the van's partially submerged sliding door wouldn't open. 
 
 Also Wednesday, authorities said 65-year-old Donald Rogers and his 58-year-old wife, Rochelle, drowned when they were swept away by a current after driving their pickup truck into floodwaters in a rural area southwest of Houston. Fort Bend County Sheriff's Maj. Chad Norvell said the couple was on the phone with 911 asking for help when the line went silent. When officers found the truck, it was completely submerged. 
 
 On Tuesday afternoon, a 3-year-old girl was found alive in a rain-swollen canal, clinging to the body of her drowned mother in Beaumont, Texas. A second woman was confirmed dead in Beaumont on Wednesday. 
 
 Earlier Tuesday, the body of 61-year-old Houston Police Sgt. Steve Perez was found in his car. He'd been swept down a flooded road as he drove to his precinct, determined to serve his community. 
 
 Eleven other confirmed deaths, some of which were listed on a Harris County database, showed people were found floating in waters — some in homes or businesses, others near cars. Among those victims was Ruben Jordan, a high school basketball coach, who was last seen late Saturday helping people through floodwaters. His family was informed on Monday that he had died in the floods. 
 
 "The sad thing is, of the deaths we've seen, we're going to see more, unfortunately," said Jeff Schlegelmilch, the deputy director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. "That number doesn't stop moving up until we're well into the recovery phase." 
 
 No official number of the missing has been released, and a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office, where Houston is located, said there isn't a specific strategy in place to look for additional bodies. 
 
 "We are going to go out and try to find any potential victims that may be there," said the spokesman, Jake Smith. "We are also encouraging the public if they come across anything, we strongly urge them to call 911 if they find a body or a potential victim." 
 
 Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the department had received 47 missing persons reports since Harvey inundated the city and 27 of those individuals have been located. 
 
 Photos with pleas for help have been posted on social media, cut-and-pasted and retweeted by thousands of people as desperate family members seek loved ones they fear may be dead — but who may only have a cellphone without power. The uncertainty is terrifying. 
 
 One of the worries, said Schlegelmilch, is that many of the severely flooded neighborhoods weren't in evacuation areas. 
 
 Additionally, the people most likely to be found dead are the elderly, the infirm and the people who were isolated from others — along with folks who didn't have the means or wherewithal to flee. Sometimes it's a matter of having the strength to wade through floodwaters a few blocks to safety, or to pull one's self up onto a roof. 
 
 "Those who are the most vulnerable when the sky is blue, they are also the most vulnerable when the sky is gray," Schleglemilch said. 
 
 Fugate, the former FEMA head, said it's also common for people to die during the recovery phase, when stress levels are high and people aren't making clear-headed decisions. 
 
 "Stay safe, stay home, stay off the roads if you can. Don't go sightseeing," he warned. 
 
 Still, experts say there is some good news: They don't expect the death toll from Harvey to come anywhere close to that of Katrina, when 1,800 people died. Many of those flood-related fatalities came when a levee broke and water inundated New Orleans. People were stranded in extreme heat and the federal response was slow. Emergency managers learned painful lessons during Katrina, and have put those lessons to use in this storm. 
 
 Residents of New Orleans during Katrina saw top-to-bottom failures at every level, experts said. 
 
 During Harvey, "state and local officials and FEMA were mobilizing, water rescue teams were prepared, in anticipation of this," said Fugate, adding that safe shelters were almost immediately in place for Texas residents, unlike New Orleans. "That provided faster rescues." 
 
 One other thing seems to have helped Houston in its time of need: the residents themselves. 
 
 "Neighbors helping neighbors," Fugate said. "That will keep the death toll down." 
 
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 Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at Http://twitter.com/tamaralush ||||| ADDS NAME OF BOY - Malachia Medrano, 2, sleeps at the George R. Brown Convention Center that has been set up as a shelter for evacuees escaping the floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston, Texas,... (Associated Press) 
 
 HOUSTON (AP) — The Latest on Tropical Storm Harvey (all times local): 
 
 1:10 p.m. 
 
 Residents along the Texas-Louisiana border are feeling Harvey's second punch as flash flooding inundates homes and overwhelms first responders trying to pluck people from the water. 
 
 Police in Beaumont, Texas, have been recruiting anyone people with boats Wednesday to help check neighborhoods for potential rescues. Police said many were not calling 911, instead calling for help on social media, adding to the chaos. 
 
 Twenty-five miles west in Orange, Texas, Anna McKay says she tried calling 911 for help, but nobody answered. Neighbors helped bring her and 12 other people who had sought refuge at her home to dry ground. They gathered at a Baptist church where people were planning to cook food to offer comfort. 
 
 Harvey made its second landfall Wednesday as a tropical storm after roaring ashore last week as a hurricane. 
 
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 1:05 p.m. 
 
 The Texas Department of Public Safety says more than 48,700 homes have been affected by flooding and other damage brought by Harvey since it first came ashore Friday. 
 
 A report released Wednesday shows more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed while about another 17,000 have sustained major damage. Approximately 32,000 have damage described by state authorities as minor. 
 
 In Harris County, one of the state's largest and home to Houston, about 43,700 homes have been damaged, with some 11,600 receiving major damage and another 770 destroyed. 
 
 Harvey has also damaged nearly 700 businesses in the state. 
 
 DPS says its report will be updated each day so the number of damaged structures is expected to rise, particularly with expanding floodwaters in Southeast Texas as Harvey moves into Louisiana. 
 
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 1 p.m. 
 
 Downtown Houston business district officials say the city's center has survived Harvey in relatively good shape, though flooding has damaged several buildings, including City Hall and the city's main performing arts centers. 
 
 Officials said Wednesday that flooding damaged the ground floor or basements of more than two dozen buildings or businesses downtown, primarily along Buffalo Bayou, a river-like waterway that meanders west to east through the city. 
 
 Among the damaged buildings are the Alley Theatre, Wortham Theater Center, Hobby Center and Jones Hall, home of the Houston Symphony. 
 
 Streets to and within downtown are open, although some freeway exit ramps leading into downtown remain impassable. There are some scattered power outages and some traffic signals are out. 
 
 There is isolated flooding in the pedestrian tunnels what wind through downtown. 
 
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 12:50 p.m. 
 
 The federal Department of Education is easing financial aid rules and procedures for those affected by Harvey. 
 
 The department is encouraging students whose financial needs have been altered by the storm to contact their school's financial aid office. The agency says in a statement that colleges and career schools will be allowed to use "professional judgment" to adjust a student's financial information in the aftermath of Harvey. 
 
 A school may even be able to waive certain paperwork requirements if documents were destroyed in the flooding. 
 
 The department says borrowers struggling to pay off loans because of Harvey should inform their loan servicers — and they've been directed to give borrowers flexibility in managing loan payments. 
 
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 12:45 p.m. 
 
 All students in the largest district in Texas will be eligible to receive three free meals per day at school as the state recovers from Harvey. 
 
 The Houston Independent School District on Wednesday announced the plan promising free meals on campus to 216,000 students during the 2017-2018 school year. 
 
 An HISD statement says federal and state agriculture departments have waived the usual required application process, part of the National School Lunch/Breakfast Program, to help with Harvey recovery. 
 
 Superintendent Richard Carranza says the waiver will give families one less concern as they begin the process of restoring their lives. 
 
 Thousands of people have been forced from their homes in Houston since Harvey struck, submerging the city with torrential rain. 
 
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 12:40 p.m. 
 
 There are more than 32,000 people in shelters across Texas as Harvey continues drenching the state's Gulf Coast. 
 
 Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas also has an additional 30,000 beds "available as needed" for those who fled or are still fleeing floodwaters associated with the storm. 
 
 At a news conference in Austin, Abbott said there are still about 107,000 power outages statewide, down from nearly 140,000 over the weekend. Harvey roared ashore as a hurricane Friday, then triggered deadly floods as a tropical storm. 
 
 Abbott refused to speculate on the final costs of the storm in terms of property damage. But he suggested that the scope of destruction far exceeded that of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or 2012's Superstorm Sandy, meaning the financial impact will likely be far greater than both. 
 
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 12:25 p.m. 
 
 Officers have located a submerged van in which six members of a Houston family were traveling when it was swept off a Houston bridge and into a storm-ravaged bayou. 
 
 Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez says the van is in about 10 feet (3 meters) of muddy water in Green's Bayou in northeast Houston. He says the bodies of two adults can be seen in the front seat but that if the four children's bodies are inside they are obscured because of the water conditions and the angle of the vehicle. 
 
 Authorities are trying to decide whether dive team members will retrieve the bodies or if it would be safer to pull the van from the treacherous water first. 
 
 Samuel Saldivar told deputies he was in his brother's van rescuing his parents and relatives from their flooded home Sunday when the van was tossed by a strong current into the bayou as it crossed a bridge. He escaped through a window but the others were trapped. 
 
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 12:05 p.m. 
 
 Authorities say a 3-year-old girl who was found clinging to the body of her drowned mother in a rain-swollen canal in Southeast Texas is doing well and should be released from the hospital soon. 
 
 Beaumont police on Wednesday identified the girl's mother as 41-year-old Colette Sulcer. 
 
 Officer Carol Riley says the toddler, who was suffering from hypothermia when she was rescued Tuesday afternoon, has now been reunited with her family. Riley says the girl is in stable condition and should be released from the hospital on Wednesday. 
 
 Authorities have said the mother's vehicle got stuck in a flooded parking lot of an office park just off Interstate 10. A witness saw the woman take her daughter and try to walk to safety when the swift current of a flooded drainage canal next to the parking lot swept them both away. 
 
 Officials say the child was holding onto the floating woman when police and fire-rescue team in a boat caught up to them a half-mile downstream. 
 
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 11:45 a.m. 
 
 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it has assigned about 150 employees from around the country to help with disaster relief efforts in Houston. 
 
 The agency said Wednesday that 139 agents and officers from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, El Paso, Houston, Washington, New York, San Diego and Tampa are on scene. They are on 25-member teams that answer to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 
 
 ICE also has another dozen employees on another team that assists FEMA. It says it is prepared to send more employees if needed. 
 
 The agency says it is not doing immigration enforcement operations in storm-affected areas. 
 
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 11:30 a.m. 
 
 President Donald Trump is promising billions to help Texas rebuild from Harvey, but his Republican allies in the House are looking at cutting almost $1 billion from disaster accounts to help finance the president's border wall. 
 
 The pending reduction to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief account is part of a spending bill that the House is scheduled to consider next week when Congress returns from its August recess. The $876 million cut, part of the 1,305-page measure's homeland security section, pays for roughly half the cost of Trump's down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall. 
 
 It seems sure that GOP leaders will move to reverse the disaster aid cut next week. The optics are politically bad and there's only $2.3 billion remaining in disaster coffers. 
 
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 11:20 a.m. 
 
 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it's not conducting immigration enforcement operations in storm-affected areas. 
 
 The agency's statement Wednesday came in response to reports a day earlier that impersonators were knocking on doors in Houston and identifying themselves as Homeland Security Investigations agents. ICE says the impersonators are reportedly telling people to evacuate, presumably with the intention of robbing their empty homes. 
 
 ICE is encouraging people to demand to see badges and credentials. The agency has sent employees to help with search-and-rescue operations. 
 
 The latest statement is more explicit than one issued earlier this week and perhaps more reassuring to people in the country illegally. On Monday, ICE said it won't conduct "routine, non-criminal immigration enforcement operations" at evacuation sites and shelters, but that the law will not be suspended. 
 
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 11:05 a.m. 
 
 Venezuela says it will offer aid to victims of Harvey through the U.S. subsidiary of its state oil company. 
 
 Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza announced Wednesday that President Nicolas Maduro had ordered Venezuelan officials to develop a plan to help those affected by the storm. 
 
 Arreaza says that Citgo will provide up to $5 million in heating products to people in Houston and that when someone fills up their tank at a Citgo, station "they will be supporting the recovery." 
 
 Harvey hit Southeast Texas last week as a Category 4 hurricane and has since downgraded to a tropical storm. 
 
 The gesture follows the imposition of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela's government that prohibit banks from providing it with new financing. Citgo is also restricted from sending dividends back to Venezuela. The sanctions were imposed because of the country's creation of a government-loaded constitutional assembly that overrides the opposition-dominated congress. 
 
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 10:50 a.m. 
 
 The National Hurricane Center says Harvey should soon slow to a tropical depression. 
 
 Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said Wednesday that Harvey is "spinning down," and while it is still a tropical storm with 45 mph (72 kph) winds, "it should be a depression sometime tonight." 
 
 A depression has maximum sustained surface winds of 38 mph (61 kph) or less. 
 
 Feltgen says Beaumont, Texas, and Cameron, Louisiana, are "still under the gun" for rain from Harvey, and conditions won't improve until Wednesday night. 
 
 The storm is forecast to then move from Louisiana into northwestern Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. 
 
 The National Weather Service is predicting 5 to 6 inches (13 to 15 centimeters) of rain in western Tennessee. Flood watches and warnings have been issued for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee. 
 
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 10:45 a.m. 
 
 Houston City Council is holding its weekly meeting at a shelter for people displaced by Harvey because city hall is flooded. 
 
 Mayor Sylvester Turner opened the meeting Wednesday at the George R. Brown Convention Center by thanking Houston's first responders, prompting a standing ovation from council members and observers. 
 
 Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told the meeting that his officers and other first responders continue to work, despite personal hardships including their own flooded homes. 
 
 The convention center has become a temporary home for more than 10,000 people since Friday, when Harvey struck the Southeast Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane. Harvey has since weakened to a tropical storm. 
 
 City hall is closed because torrential rain flooded its basement and the bottom floor of an annex building, knocking out power. 
 
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 10:25 a.m. 
 
 Three Carnival Cruise Line ships that are based in Galveston but detoured to New Orleans to wait out Harvey could soon be back in storm-battered Texas. 
 
 The ships, carrying more than 15,000 passengers and crew, were scheduled to return to Galveston last weekend but changed course when Harvey slammed into Southeast Texas as a Category 4 hurricane. Harvey has since weakened to a tropical storm that has dumped more than 50 inches (127 centimeters) of rain in parts of Southeast Texas. 
 
 Carnival spokeswoman Christine de la Huerta says the Carnival Freedom and the Carnival Valor were departing Wednesday from New Orleans as preparations continue to reopen the Port of Galveston. She says the Carnival Breeze left New Orleans on Tuesday. 
 
 Miami-based Carnival, its parent company Carnival Corporation and the Micky and Madeleine Arison Family Foundation, are donating $2 million to Harvey relief efforts. Mickey Arison is Carnival's chairman. 
 
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 10:15 a.m. 
 
 Harris County flood control officials are concerned that a levee could fail in a suburban Houston subdivision in the north of the county, thus adding to the Harvey-related floods. 
 
 Spokesman Jeff Lindner says if the weakened section of levee along Cypress Creek in Inverness Forest is breached, water is going to rise "very quickly and very fast, and it is going to be deep." 
 
 He says the water could reach the rooftops of homes immediately in the levee area. The area is under a mandatory evacuation order due to Harvey, but some residents have remained. 
 
 Lindner says county authorities are working with several agencies to figure out how to increase pressure on the outside of the levee to compensate for the tremendous pressure inside due to record amounts of water. 
 
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 10 a.m. 
 
 A sheriff's official north of Houston says two men died this week in separate drownings, bringing the number of confirmed Harvey-related deaths to 20. 
 
 Montgomery County sheriff's Capt. Bryan Carlisle said Wednesday that 33-year-old Joshua Feuerstein of Conroe died when he disregarded a barricade and drove his pickup into standing water Monday. 
 
 Carlisle says witnesses saw the pickup's reverse lights illuminate, indicating that Feuerstein was attempting to back out of the water. But the pickup was carried into deeper water. The witnesses swam to help, but Carlisle says he was already dead. 
 
 Separately, an unidentified man died as he tried to swim across a flooded roadway Monday. 
 
 Carlisle says people nearby saw the man sink under the fast-moving water. His body was found a day later in the same area. 
 
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 9:50 a.m. 
 
 Joel Osteen is defending the decision not to open his Houston megachurch as a shelter during the initial flooding from Harvey in the face of withering criticism on social media. 
 
 The televangelist maintained on ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday that his Lakewood Church was inaccessible due to floodwaters during the early part of the storm. He says the 16,000-seat former basketball arena is prone to flooding and "the last thing we would do is put people in it right at the beginning." He says the city didn't ask the church to open as a shelter initially. 
 
 Osteen tells NBC's "Today" show that a "false narrative" on social media was to blame for the backlash. 
 
 Lakewood Church began taking in Harvey evacuees Tuesday afternoon. 
 
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 9:45 a.m. 
 
 The elected official in charge of the county that includes Houston says Harvey could have damaged 30,000 to 40,000 homes. 
 
 Harris County Judge Ed Emmett told TV station KTRK on Wednesday that it's just an estimate officials are discussing, but that it could be even more. 
 
 He says some homes have been damaged irreparably and that there will difficult months or even years ahead. 
 
 Emmett says one priority in trying restore some sense of normalcy is getting kids in the region back to school. He says it won't be easy because so many people have been displaced. 
 
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 This item has been corrected to show Emmett spoke Wednesday, not Monday. 
 
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 9:35 a.m. 
 
 An official says it's too early to say if the thousands of Houston-area homes flooded by Harvey's torrential rains can be rebuilt. 
 
 Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District says: "When water sits in a house for several weeks, the house begins to degrade." 
 
 About 4,000 homes in the areas near the Addicks and Barker reservoirs have been flooded, some with 3 to 6 feet (90 to 180 centimeters) of water. Linder says some of those will remain flooded "for an extended period of time." 
 
 He says it's unclear what condition those properties will be in when those residents return. 
 
 Lindner says controlled water releases from the two reservoirs continue to flow into Buffalo Bayou, and that some homes in the area could be flooded again. But he expects no additional homes to take on water in the area. 
 
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 9:20 a.m. 
 
 Officials say nearly all Houston-area waterways inundated by Harvey's record rainfall have crested, but that water levels continue to rise in two flood-control reservoirs. 
 
 Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District says river levels are going down Wednesday "for the first time in several days." 
 
 Army Corps of Engineers regional engineer Edmond Russo says water in the Barker and Addicks reservoirs in west Houston rose slightly overnight and is likely to crest Wednesday, but slightly below forecast levels. 
 
 The reservoirs have received 32 to 35 inches (81 to 89 centimeters) of rain since Harvey hit last weekend, but Russo says less than an inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain is forecast in the coming week. 
 
 Lindner says "we're getting very close to the peak of both reservoirs." 
 
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 8:55 a.m. 
 
 Motiva Enterprises has closed its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas — the biggest in the nation — because of floodwaters that are inundating the area east of Houston near the Louisiana border. 
 
 CNN reports that company officials Wednesday opted to temporarily cease operations as Harvey continues to batter coastal regions. The tropical storm has dropped a record amount of rain on Texas. 
 
 The company had just announced Tuesday that it had cut output to 40 percent. Motiva, which is owned by Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, said it was dealing with restrictions in the flow of crude oil coming in and products such as gasoline going out through pipelines and ports. 
 
 Refineries operated by Exxon, Shell and other companies have released pollutants as torrential rains damaged storage tanks and other industrial facilities on the Texas Coast. 
 
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 8:45 a.m. 
 
 Best Buy says it is "deeply sorry" following accusations of price gouging after a photo posted online showed cases of water for sale at one of the electronic retailer's Houston-area stores for more than $42. 
 
 The photo , which was widely shared on Twitter, appeared to have been taken by a Houston resident. 
 
 Best Buy says the sale was "clearly a mistake on the part of a few employees at a single store." The company explained in a statement that it doesn't have pricing for cases of water in its system and employees priced the water "by multiplying the cost of one bottle by the number of bottles in a case." 
 
 The company says it's "deeply sorry that we gave anyone even the momentary impression that we were trying to take advantage of the situation." 
 
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 8:15 a.m. 
 
 An emergency management official east of Houston says the area bordering Louisiana is virtually isolated because primary roads are flooded and water levels are rising. 
 
 Marcus McLellan, spokesman for the Jefferson County emergency management office in Beaumont, said Wednesday that Interstate 10 is flooded, as are several highways and many secondary roads. 
 
 I-10 from Houston to New Orleans is one of the most heavily traveled roads in the country, normally carrying tens of thousands of vehicles each day. 
 
 McLellan says he's stationed at the emergency operations center in downtown Beaumont and to leave the area he'd have to travel east on secondary roads toward Louisiana, which is receiving the brunt of Tropical Storm Harvey. 
 
 Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames on Wednesday told NBC's Today show that every body of water around the city is overflowing and that the rain continues to fall. 
 
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 7 a.m. 
 
 A shelter near Houston for at least 100 displaced people has been overrun by Harvey floodwaters, forcing weary evacuees to retreat to bleacher seats. 
 
 Jefferson County sheriff's deputy Marcus McLellan said Wednesday that the Bowers Civic Center in Port Arthur was inundated overnight due to overwhelming rainfall and a nearby overflowing canal. 
 
 Cots and belongings have been abandoned on the civic center floor, which is under about a foot (30 centimeters) of water. 
 
 McLellan says it's not clear where the evacuees will go. Some have been at the civic center since Monday. 
 
 He says he's not sure if a Salvation Army shelter in Beaumont has space, and the Beaumont Civic Center can hold 600 people but it's already at capacity. Beaumont is just northwest of Port Arthur. 
 
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– A Facebook warning from emergency management officials in Texas' Tyler County shows just how dire the effects of Harvey continue to be. Citing rising flood levels, the post late Wednesday warned everyone in affected areas to evacuate immediately. "Anyone who chooses to not heed this directive cannot expect to be rescued and should write their social security numbers in permanent marker on their arm so their bodies can be identified," the message read, per the Houston Chronicle. "The loss of life and property is certain," it continued. The final words read, "GET OUT OR DIE!” though they have since been removed. In Fort Bend County, officials also announced mandatory evacuation orders near Buffalo Bayou early Thursday, per the AP. Harvey, downgraded from a tropical storm to a tropical depression late Wednesday, is still expected to deliver 4 to 8 inches of rain into parts of Texas and Louisiana as well as Tennessee and Kentucky through Friday. The death toll continues to climb and now stands at 38, reports the New York Times. "The sad thing is, of the deaths we've seen, we're going to see more," the deputy director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness tells the AP. "That number doesn't stop moving up until we're well into the recovery phase." With floodwaters receding in Houston, officials have begun searching thousands of flooded homes for bodies. The effort could take up to two weeks with 911 centers still fielding more than 1,000 calls per hour, the AP reports.