A man broke into a Corpus Christi, Texas, home just as Category 4 Hurricane Harvey barreled into the Texas Gulf Coast on Friday evening, causing the homeowner to shoot him.

It happened about 11 p.m. CST, an hour after the storm made landfall with 130-mph winds, in a residential part of the Gulf Coast city.

Corpus Christi police say the man had broken into the house and was shot by the homeowner. Officers found a man at the scene who had been shot in the head.

The devastating storm left more than 100,000 area residents without power. It's unknown whether the homeowner had power at the time of the break-in.

The man was taken to a local hospital. His age and condition were not immediately available. Although police said he was coherent when he went to the hospital.</s>A look at Hurricane Carla and some of the most damaging hurricanes to hit the United States since 2000: (Figures have not been adjusted for inflation) CARLA Starting as a tropical depression in the Caribbean Sea on Sept. 3, 1961, Carla steadily gained momentum until it was labeled a major hurricane four days later. After a few days, it became a Category 5, only to be downgraded to a Category 4 by Sept. 11, when it made landfall on Matagorda Island, a 38-mile (61-kilometer) barrier island on the Texas Gulf coast, according to the National Weather Service. It weakened to a tropical storm after its eye hit Port O'Connor and Port Lavaca in Texas. The hurricane also impacted parts of Louisiana, Oklahoma and Illinois. In Texas, the highest winds were about 115 mph but sustained winds in some parts hit 170 mph. The hurricane spawned 18 tornadoes, including 10 in Louisiana and eight in Texas. Between Carla and the subsequent tornadoes, the NWS said 46 people were killed and more than 450 were injured. Total damage was estimated at $2.36 billion with Texas suffering more than $400 million in damage. In Texas, 1,915 homes were destroyed. ___ KATRINA Katrina crossed the tip of Florida and then swept into the Gulf of Mexico and over Louisiana and Mississippi, causing more than 1,800 deaths and an estimated $108 billion in damage and becoming the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, according to the National Hurricane Center. Most of the fatalities occurred in Louisiana, where thousands of homes and businesses in New Orleans were destroyed by strong winds and flooding. Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Alabama also reported deaths in the 2005 hurricane, which left about 3 million people without power, some for weeks at a time. ___ SANDY The pounding winds and storm surges of Sandy, dubbed a 'superstorm' since it was extratropical by the time it made landfall, devastated the coastlines of New York and New Jersey in late October 2012, damaging at least 650,000 homes and causing about 8.5 million power outages, according to the Hurricane Center. U.S. officials preliminarily tallied at least $50 billion in damage, though some sources cite around $75 billion. There were at least 147 deaths directly tied to storm conditions, as well as a number of indirect fatalities linked to hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning and falling trees during the cleanup effort, the center said. Repairs to homes and infrastructure continue today. ___ IKE Ike's storm surges raised water levels across nearly the entire U.S. Gulf Coast when it hit in 2008, causing almost $30 billion in damage, mostly in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. At least 20 people were killed, according to the Hurricane Center. Waves battered the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, and almost 3 million people in those state lost power. Winds uprooted trees, and a number of homes were damaged. ___ WILMA Coming near the end of 2005's extraordinary hurricane season, Wilma caused 98 percent of South Florida to lose electricity, with experts at the Hurricane Center attributing widespread damage in the state to its large core. Trees were downed, windows shattered, roofs torn up and crops lost. All told, the U.S. reported more than $21 billion in damage, as well as five deaths. ___ IVAN Ivan's 10- to 15-foot storm surge in 2004 caused as much as a quarter-mile of an interstate bridge to collapse in Florida, which along with Alabama was among the hardest-hit states, according to the Hurricane Center. Thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed. Debris piled up after the storm stretched for more than three-quarters of a mile and were as tall as seven stories. Almost 2 million people experienced power outages. Ivan killed 25 people and caused more than $18 billion in damage, according to the center. ___ RITA Rita, one of the strongest hurricanes of the record-breaking 2005 season, prompted one of the largest-scale evacuations in U.S. history, with more than 2 million people estimated to have fled the Texas coast, according to the Hurricane Center. Coming just weeks after Katrina, Rita's wind and rain caused $12 billion in damage and killed 62 people, including many nursing home residents whose bus caught fire as they fled the storm, the center said. Nearly every structure in some coastal areas of southwestern Louisiana was destroyed, some entirely swept away.</s>CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas: Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast on Friday as a Category 4 storm, bringing life-threatening winds and the likelihood of catastrophic flooding as the most powerful storm in over a decade hit the mainland United States.

The hurricane made landfall northeast of Corpus Christi around 10 p.m. CDT (0400 BST) with maximum winds of 130 miles per hour (209 km per hour). The storm is expected to move slowly over the Texas and Louisiana coasts for days, with forecasts for storm surges of up to 13 feet (4 meters) and over 3 feet (90 cm) of rain.

As many as 6 million people were believed to be in Harvey's path, as is the heart of America's oil refining operations. The storm's impact on refineries has already pushed up gasoline prices while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lifted some rules on gasoline to reduce shortages.

Fuelled by the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Harvey became the first Category 4 hurricane to wallop the United States since Charley in 2004 and the first to hit Texas since Carla in 1961.

About 30 miles (45 km) from Corpus Christi and moving northwest, Harvey caused scattered power outages both on the coast near Galveston and 100 miles (160 km) inland.

Donald Trump, facing the first large-scale natural disaster of his presidency, said on Twitter he signed a disaster proclamation which "unleashes the full force of government help" shortly before Harvey made landfall.

While thousands fled the expected devastating flooding and destruction, many residents defied mandatory evacuation orders and stocked up on food, fuel and sandbags, drawing the ire of local authorities.

"We’re suggesting if people are going to stay here, mark their arm with a Sharpie pen with their name and Social Security number," Rockport Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios told reporters Friday, according to media reports. "We hate to talk about things like that. It's not something we like to do but it’s the reality. People don’t listen."

There were initial reports of extensive damage in Rockport, near the eye of the hurricane, including structural damage to a high school, hotel and other buildings being used as shelters, according to local media.

As a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Harvey could uproot trees, destroy homes and disrupt utilities for days. It is the first major hurricane, of Category 3 or more, to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Wilma struck Florida in 2005.

In Corpus Christi, a city of 320,000 under voluntary evacuation, strengthening winds buffeted the few trucks and cars that continued to circulate on the streets. The storm toppled wooden roadwork signs and littered the streets with pieces of palm trees as white caps rocked sailboats in their docks.

About 85 miles (137 km) north in Victoria, Mayor Paul Polasek told CNN he estimated that 60 percent to 65 percent of the town’s 65,000 residents defied the mandatory evacuation order.

Jose Rengel, a 47-year-old who works in construction, said he was one of the few people in Jamaica Beach in Galveston that did not heed a voluntary evacuation order.

“All the shops are empty,” he said as the sky turned black and rain fell. “It’s like a tornado went in and swept everything up.”

With the hurricane lashing the Texas coast, at least three cruise ships operated by Carnival Corp with thousands of passengers aboard were forced to change their plans to sail for the Port of Galveston.

Two of them headed New Orleans to pick up fresh supplies, while the third delayed its departure from Cozumel, Mexico.

Louisiana and Texas declared states of disaster, authorizing the use of state resources to prepare.

The NHC's latest tracking model shows the storm sitting southwest of Houston for more than a day, giving the nation's fourth most populous city a double dose of rain and wind.

The city warned residents of flooding from close to 20 inches (60 cm) of rain over several days.

But Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner advised residents not to leave en masse, saying "no evacuation orders have been issued for the city." Chaotic traffic from a rushed evacuation in 2005 with Hurricane Rita proved tragic. "Calm and care!" he said in a tweet.

Gasoline stations on the south Texas coast were running out of fuel as thousands of residents fled the region. U.S. gasoline prices spiked as the storm shut down 22 percent of Gulf of Mexico oil production, according to the U.S. government.

At a Willis, Texas, station, about 50 miles (77 km) north of Houston, Corey Martinez, 40, was heading to Dallas from his Corpus Christi home.

"It has been pretty stressful. We're just trying to get ahead of the storm," he said. "We've never been through a hurricane before."

More than 45 percent of the country's refining capacity is along the U.S. Gulf Coast, and nearly a fifth of the nation's crude oil is produced offshore. Ports from Corpus Christi to Texas City, Texas, were closed to incoming vessels and Royal Dutch Shell Plc , Anadarko Petroleum Corp , Exxon Mobil Corp and others have evacuated staff from offshore oil and gas platforms.

Concern that Harvey could cause shortages in fuel supply drove benchmark gasoline prices to their highest in four months, before profit taking pulled back prices. Meanwhile, U.S. gasoline margins hit their strongest levels in five years for this time of year.

The U.S. government said it would make emergency stockpiles of crude available if needed to plug disruptions. It has regularly used them to dampen the impact of previous storms on energy supplies.</s>A tropical depression that formed in the Gulf of Mexico has now attained the status of a hurricane. According to the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Harvey has reached wind speeds of more than 80 mph as of Thursday afternoon. The Center has also forecast that Hurricane Harvey will hit the Texas Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane as it intensifies further. If the forecast does turn out to be true, it will make Harvey the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade. The last major storm in the region was Hurricane Wilma that hit the U.S. back in October 2005, the Washington Post reports.

With the threat of Hurricane Harvey looming large, the National Hurricane Center also issued a hurricane warning for a 280-mile long stretch of the Texas coast. The center has also warned about the possibility of some areas getting as much as 25 inches of rain over the course of the next week. As of now, Hurricane Harvey is part of a slow moving storm system which has lead to heightened concerns of heavy rainfall and subsequent waterlogging and flooding. Some areas in Texas could also see dangerous flash floods. A statement issued by hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski of Accuweather read;

Another Accuweather weather expert Marshall Moss has predicted that the impact caused by Hurricane Harvey would be of “tremendous” nature and that it will cause severe damage to life and property across the region.

People and businesses living in the path of the hurricane have started preparing for the worse. Petroleum companies ExxonMobil, Shell and Anadarko Petroleum have started evacuating their workers from the region. People living on South Padre Island have started filling sandbags to protect their homes and businesses.

A hurricane watch is in effect for most of coastal Texas — from Port Mansfield to Luis Pass. There are also concerns about storm surges that could range from 5 to 7 feet in height. Owing to these concerns, residents living along the upper Texas coastline have been asked to move inland. People living in low-lying areas have also been directed to seek higher ground.

The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott has directed the State Operations Center to raise its readiness level and has already declared a state of emergency. While it is not possible to correctly predict the behavior of hurricanes once they hit land, current computer models reveal that Hurricane Harvey will make landfall on Friday night — somewhere between Port Mansfield and San Luis Pass.

In case you happen to live in the path of the hurricane, now is the time you started preparing to keep yourselves and your family safe.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — Hurricane Harvey is following the perfect recipe to be a monster storm, meteorologists say.

University of Miami senior hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy said Harvey combines the worst attributes of nasty recent Texas storms: The devastating storm surge of Hurricane Ike in 2008; the winds of Category 4 Hurricane Brett in 1999 and days upon days of heavy rain of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.

Rainfall is forecast to be as high as 35 inches through next Wednesday in some areas. Deadly storm surge — the push inwards of abnormally high ocean water above regular tides — could reach 12 feet, the National Hurricane Center warned, calling Harvey life-threatening. Harvey’s forecast path is the type that keeps it stronger longer with devastating rain and storm-force wind lasting for several days, not hours.

“It’s a very dangerous storm,” National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini told The Associated Press. “It does have all the ingredients it needs to intensify. And we’re seeing that intensification occur quite rapidly.”

Warm water is the fuel for hurricanes. It’s where storms get their energy. Water needs to be about 79 degrees (26 Celsius) or higher to sustain a hurricane, McNoldy said. Harvey is over part of the Gulf of Mexico where the water is about 87 degrees or 2 degrees above normal for this time of year, said Jeff Masters, a former hurricane hunter meteorologist and meteorology director of Weather Underground.

A crucial factor is something called ocean heat content. It’s not just how warm the surface water is but how deep it goes. And Harvey is over an area where warm enough water goes about 330 feet (100 meters) deep, which is a very large amount of heat content, McNoldy said.

“It can sit there and spin and have plenty of warm water to work with,” McNoldy said.

If winds at 40,000 feet high are strong in the wrong direction it can decapitate a hurricane. Strong winds high up remove the heat and moisture that hurricanes need near their center and also distort the shape.

But the wind up there is weak so Harvey “is free to go nuts basically,” McNoldy said.

Before it hits the Texas coast, Harvey is projected to go over an even deeper and warmer eddy to supercharge it a bit more, just like what happened to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but not quite as bad, Masters said.

If that’s not bad enough, there’s a good chance that after Harvey hits it will follow a track so close to the coast and not so much inland that it will essentially keep a toe in the water. The storm could be big enough that not all of it is over land. Because of that, the National Hurricane Center forecasts that it will remain at least tropical storm strength — and 40 mph winds — through Tuesday, maybe into Wednesday.

Because it looks like Harvey will be meandering at around 10 mph and then will likely stall out over the coast or just a bit inland, that means it will stay over one place and keep raining, Masters said. Day in, day out until the middle of next week.

“We’re talking feet of rain, not inches,” Masters said.

And the storm’s heavy rains can last not just a few hours but “over a two-, three-, four-day period” from Texas to Louisiana, Uccellini said.

Copyright © 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>The powerful eye wall of Harvey reached land by 11 p.m. ET between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, Texas, with winds of 130 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

It is the first Category 4 hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Charley in 2004.

Millions of residents along the south Texas coast saw hurricane-force winds that knocked down trees, power poles and signs.

First responders are yet to assess the impact that the extremely powerful hurricane has caused over Texas in the first hours since landfall but forecasters have said it will be devastating and leave areas "uninhabitable for weeks or months."

#Harvey made landfall at 10 PM CDT as a category 4 hurricane near Rockport, Texas, with max winds of 130 mph and min pressure of 938 mb. pic.twitter.com/98y5wpKmBw — NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) August 26, 2017 Harvey has the "highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of damage," said Brock Long, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As Harvey deluges Texas, coastal cities could see 13 feet of storm surge and as much as 40 inches of rain by Wednesday. Rain is blown past palm trees as Hurricane Harvey makes landfall Friday in Corpus Christi, Texas. -- There have been reports of structural and building problems in Rockport, Aransas Pass, and Port Aransas, Texas, said Tom Beal, a meteorologist with National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi. He anticipated that the hurricane would clear that area sometime about 4 a.m. ET Saturday. -- The hurricane center said a tide gauge in Port Lavaca, Texas reported storm surge of 5.6 feet. -- At least 104,000 customers of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) electric system lost power just at Harvey made landfall Friday, the corporation said on Twitter. -- Rockport, Texas, officials are advising residents who refuse to evacuate to write their names and Social Security number on their forearm, Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios told CNN. Rios said it will "help out first responders should they find a body." -- President Donald Trump, who will visit the area next week, has signed a disaster declaration for the state. A tree blocks a street as Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Corpus Christi, Texas on Friday. In Rockport, firefighters were "hunkered down" in the fire station as the eye of the storm was over them. Roy Laird, assistant chief with the Rockport Volunteer Fire Department, told CNN they were anxious to get out and check the city for damage but it could be hours before they will be able to safely leave the station. "We had probably 140 mph winds earlier. It was howling," Laird added. Joey Walker, 25, works with the Galveston Island Beach Patrol and is riding out the storm from a house on Galveston Island. He posted video of near-white out conditions overlooking Stewart Beach. Hurricane Harvey isn't playing around, can't even see the beach! 🌀👀 #storm #hurricane #wind #rain #powerful #hurricaneharvey #windy Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said anyone not leaving should plan to stay off the roads once the storm starts. "People need to know, this is not a one-, two-day event and done," Turner said. The storm will stall and dump rain on South Texas and parts of Louisiana into the middle of next week, forecasters predicted.</s>As heavy rain and gusty winds move in over Texas, coastal residents were deciding Friday morning whether to flee or to stay put and brace for a potentially life-threatening storm.

Hurricane Harvey was “dangerously approaching the Texas Coast” and expected to bring as much as 35 inches of rain and storm-surge flooding that could reach a depth of 6 to 12 feet along the coast, the National Hurricane Center said.

Conditions are “expected to deteriorate through the day,” the center said. “Preparations along the middle Texas coast should be rushed to completion this morning.”

Forecasters say Harvey is on track to become a Category 3 hurricane with winds of at least 111 mph by the time it makes landfall around Corpus Christi late Friday or early Saturday.

It’s then expected to stall over the state, broadening the flood threat, forecasters said.

“All indications from the hurricane center are that this is going to be the first major hurricane the nation has dealt with since 2005,” FEMA Director Brock Long said.

— Harvey strengthened early Friday, becoming a Category 2 hurricane with winds up to 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

— Isolated tornadoes are possible Friday across portions of the middle and upper Texas coast, the service said.

— Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has requested the activation of 700 National Guard members.

— The Ports of Corpus Christi and Galveston are closed.

— Three Galveston-based cruise ships in the Gulf of Mexico diverted to safer water.

“Texas is about to have a very significant disaster,” Long, the FEMA chief, said, stressing that people need to heed evacuation warnings.

Those who stay should “elevate and get into a structure that can withstand potentially Category 3 winds from a hurricane,” he said.

“The bottom line message is, right now, if people have not heeded the warning, again, their window to do so is closing,” Long said. “If they refuse to heed the warning, that’s on them.”

Long said he is “very worried” about storm surge, or “wind-driven water,” slamming coastal areas, saying it has the “highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of damage.”

A “significant inland flood event over many counties” is expected, he warned.

“Over the next five days, we’re going to see copious amounts of rainfall, up to 25 inches, possibly, in some areas, with isolated higher amounts,” he said. “This is going to be a slow-developing major disaster event for the state of Texas.”

FEMA has pre-positioned incident management teams, as well as life-saving and life-sustaining commodities, and search-and-rescue teams in Texas, Long said.

Long said FEMA is “fully engaged” with the White House, as Harvey is poised to deliver a critical test of President Donald Trump’s abilities as commander-in-chief.

“I think we’ll be looking at the potential request for presidential disaster declarations coming up from Gov. Abbott,” Long said. “The President has the ability, has the authority to sign off on those to mobilize our support to the state governments.”

Harvey is also causing concern in New Orleans, where heavy rain could usher in as much as 20 inches of rain through early next week and overwhelm the city’s already-compromised drainage system.

‘I’m trying to be strong’

The threat of Harvey became evident Thursday when several counties on the Texas coast issued evacuation orders — and an exodus of residents began.

Drivers sat bumper-to-bumper, with highways backed up for miles.

Rose Yepez told CNN it took her twice as long as usual to drive 140 miles from Corpus Christi to San Antonio, en route to Texas Hill Country.

Private vehicles — along with city buses packed with adults and children carrying backpacks — jammed roads for hours.

“I’m shaking inside, but for them, I’m trying to be strong,” a Corpus Christi woman who was waiting with her two daughters to board a bus out of town told CNN affiliate KRIS.

Ambulances stayed busy overnight, and 10 critically ill babies were evacuated to North Texas on medical flights from a Corpus Christi hospital, the Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth said in a statement.

Workers at 39 offshore petroleum production platforms and an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico also evacuated Thursday, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said.

Meantime, first responders, like Brittany Fowler, stayed behind and waited for the storm.

“Hopefully it doesn’t do any damage, but if it does, we’ve prepared,” Fowler, a firefighter in Corpus Christi, wrote on Instagram.

Fowler’s family helped by boarding up windows and doors at her home, and she bought plenty of water, food and a small power generator.

Corey Davis, by contrast, was free to go — but opted to stay put, even as Harvey’s winds started blowing Thursday night. Instead of packing, she and her relatives took turns climbing a tall ladder to secure plywood over windows at their Port O’Connor home.

“I’m scared, so I’m doing everything that I can to protect (this) little place down here,” Davis told CNN affiliate KTRK, “and hope and pray for the best.”</s>As Hurricane Harvey gains strength, residents along the Texas coast aren’t taking any chances; they’re filling sandbags, stocking up on water and boarding up windows.

In Corpus Christi, where Harvey could make landfall and Mayor Joe McComb has issued a voluntary evacuation order, Walmart shelves were clearing quickly, as the city canceled Friday’s dockets in city court and provided self-serve sandbags to residents.

Port Aransas on Mustang Island and nearby Portland issued mandatory evacuation orders. Houston, meanwhile, has canceled the first day of school on Monday.

Harvey is rapidly strengthening and is forecast to become a Category 3 hurricane with winds of at least 111 mph by the time it hits the middle Texas coast late Friday or early Saturday, the hurricane center said Thursday. After hitting Corpus Christi, the storm is expected to stall over the state, forecasters say.

Hurricane-force winds are a concern as the storm builds strength in the Gulf of Mexico, and a potential deluge and subsequent flooding may be a big danger as well, according to meteorologists.

“Harvey is likely to bring multiple hazards, including heavy rainfall, storm surge and possible hurricane conditions to portions of the Texas coast beginning Friday,” the National Weather Service said.

“Those conditions can happen far away from the landfall,” hurricane specialist John Cangialosi said Thursday afternoon.

People shouldn’t focus on where the eye will come ashore but should listen to local authorities and be prepared for rain through the weekend and possibly into next week, he added.

At 5 p.m. ET, Harvey was a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds. It was about 305 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, and was moving north-northwest at 10 mph.

It’s expected to bring 15 to 25 inches of rain to the Texas coast, with isolated instances where rainfall totals could reach 35 inches, the hurricane center said, bumping up the predicted totals by 5 inches since a previous advisory.

Rainfall amounts increase exponentially when a storm moves at a slower speed, as Harvey has been doing.

The National Hurricane Center has warned Harvey will slow down when it reaches the coast and there will be days of heavy rain and flooding across portions of Texas. Louisiana and Mexico will also be affected by the storm.

Compounding potential problems is the tidal cycle. If peak storm surge arrives during high tide, parts of the coast could see 2 to 8 feet of flooding, with the potential of 6 to 12 feet between Padre Island National Seashore and Sargent, Texas.

“Historically, water from tropical cyclones is more deadly” than from damage done by the powerful winds of the storm, Cangialosi said.

While it has been nine years since Texas last saw a hurricane, the state is no stranger to devastating flooding from tropical systems. In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison was a multibillion-dollar disaster for the state, specifically Houston. Allison became nearly stationary for days, dropping more than 30 inches of rain across portions of the city.

A hurricane warning is in effect from Port Mansfield near Mexico to Sargent, with a storm surge warning stretching from Port Mansfield to High Island in Galveston County.

Harvey could be the first hurricane to hit Texas since 2008 when Hurricane Ike smashed the coast near Galveston. The storm killed 21 people in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, and caused widespread destruction.

‘It scares the hell out of people’

As Harvey churned toward Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster Wednesday in 30 counties along the Gulf of Mexico. The governor’s action allows agencies to “quickly deploy resources for the emergency response.”

“Texans believe in taking action and always being prepared in the event of an emergency,” Abbott said. “That is why I am taking every precaution prior to … Harvey making landfall.”

Energy companies are evacuating personnel from off-shore production platforms, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced.

In San Antonio, Mayor Ron Nirenberg issued a local disaster declaration warned residents about going out in the rain.

Students and staff at the Texas A&M campus at Corpus Christi are under a mandatory evacuation order. The campus will be closed starting Thursday, according to the university’s website.

People around Corpus Christi started stocking up Wednesday on food, bottled water and other essentials.

“We know that if anything as far as flooding happens, that’s the one thing everyone runs to, we have to have water,” Mariah Barter told CNN affiliate KZTV. “It’s a big deal. It scares the hell out of people. It’s better to be prepared.”

Others in South Texas readied sandbags, fueled up power generators and bought plywood to board up their windows, CNN affiliate KRIS reported.

At a Thursday afternoon White House briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump has been briefed on Harvey. She downplayed concerns about preparedness, given that there is no permanent Homeland Security secretary, and said the White House is in “great shape,” given that chief of staff John Kelly was previously in charge of the office.</s>With flood warnings expected brought on by Hurricane Harvey, Stephen F. Austin State University students were allowed to move into dorms a couple of days earlier than scheduled.

With flood warnings expected brought on by Hurricane Harvey, Stephen F. Austin State University students were allowed to move into dorms a couple of days earlier than scheduled.

Thursday night the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury declared a state of emergency in anticipation of heavy rains from Hurricane Harvey. Dick Gremillion, director of Calcasieu's Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, gave an update to jurors on the hurricane's status and the impacts it will have on our area.

Thursday night the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury declared a state of emergency in anticipation of heavy rains from Hurricane Harvey. Dick Gremillion, director of Calcasieu's Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, gave an update to jurors on the hurricane's status and the impacts it will have on our area.

After losing thousands of books in Hurricanes Rita and Ike, the Cameron Parish Library is not backing down from Harvey. "Cajuns are some tough people," said Dede Sanders, interim director of Cameron Parish Libraries. "It takes a lot to knock us down." For the first time in years, the library is picking up all books from the ground and elevating them in case of flooding. "If we get anything above two feet, we're going to get wet," Sanders said. A...

After losing thousands of books in Hurricanes Rita and Ike, the Cameron Parish Library is not backing down from Harvey. "Cajuns are some tough people," said Dede Sanders, interim director of Cameron Parish Libraries. "It takes a lot to knock us down." For the first time in years, the library is picking up all books from the ground and elevating them in case of flooding. "If we get anything above two feet, we're going to get wet," Sanders said. A...

The eye of Hurricane Harvey was located about 180 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas and about 185 miles south-southeast of Port O’Connor, Texas.

The eye of Hurricane Harvey was located about 180 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas and about 185 miles south-southeast of Port O’Connor, Texas.

More than 900 members of the Texas Army and Air National Guards and Texas State Guard with the Texas Military Department have been activated and are stationed around the state in preparetion of Hurricane Harvey.

More than 900 members of the Texas Army and Air National Guards and Texas State Guard with the Texas Military Department have been activated and are stationed around the state in preparetion of Hurricane Harvey.

If you have family or friends in South Texas, now is the time to evacuate.

If you have family or friends in South Texas, now is the time to evacuate.

A tugboat crew from Cape Girardeau, Missouri is in the path of Hurricane Harvey outside of Corpus Christi, Texas.

A tugboat crew from Cape Girardeau, Missouri is in the path of Hurricane Harvey outside of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Harvey continues churning in the Gulf of Mexico as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane as it heads for landfall in Texas tonight.

Harvey continues churning in the Gulf of Mexico as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane as it heads for landfall in Texas tonight.

Many New Orleanians aren't taking any chances when it comes to Hurricane Harvey Five fire stations in the city started sandbagging operations at 6 p.m. Friday.

Many New Orleanians aren't taking any chances when it comes to Hurricane Harvey Five fire stations in the city started sandbagging operations at 6 p.m. Friday.

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip). Aaron Berg fills up a gas can and his portable generator Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, in Houston as Hurricane Harvey intensifies in the Gulf of Mexico. Harvey is forecast to be a major hurricane when it makes landfall.

(Courtney Sacco/Corpus Christi Caller-Times via AP). Palmer Simpson loads suitcases into his truck as he prepares to evacuate his home in Port Aransas, Texas, ahead of Hurricane Harvey on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017.

(AP Photo/Eric Gay). Residents fill sand bags as they prepare for Hurricane Harvey, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Two counties have ordered mandatory evacuations as Hurricane Harvey gathers strength as it drifts toward Texas.

(Rachel Denny Clow/Corpus Christi Caller-Times via AP). Mauro Eligio boards up his home on the Southside of Corpus Christi, Texas, on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, in preparation of Hurricane Harvey.

(Jason Hoekema/The Brownsville Herald via AP). A lone car crosses the Queen Isabella Memorial Causeway in the distance as rain from Hurricane Harvey falls on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, in Port Isabel, Texas.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) - Hurricane Harvey neared landfall in Texas Friday night, promising to be the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade with 130 mph winds and torrential rain whose forecast earlier sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing the state's Gulf Coast in hopes of escaping its wrath.

The National Hurricane Center said the eye of the dangerous Category 4 storm was "almost onshore" as of 9 p.m.

With time running out, residents earlier fled from the path of the increasingly menacing-looking hurricane as it took aim at an area of Texas that includes oil refineries, chemical plants and dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned that the monster system would be "a very major disaster," and the predictions drew fearful comparisons to Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest ever to strike the U.S.

"We know that we've got millions of people who are going to feel the impact of this storm," said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman and meteorologist for the National Hurricane Center. "We really pray that people are listening to their emergency managers and get out of harm's way."

As night fell, punishing winds already had begun to cause damage in downtown Corpus Christi, the city closest to the center of the storm. A trash can lid skipped across a parking lot behind hotels on the seawall. In the city of 325,000 residents, a traffic light post was toppled but still lit, its wires unearthed.

Fueled by warm Gulf of Mexico waters, Harvey grew rapidly, accelerating from a Category 1 early Friday morning to a Category 4 by evening. Its transformation from an unnamed storm to a life-threatening behemoth took only 56 hours, an incredibly fast intensification.

Without losing significant strength, the system will come ashore as the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961's Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

Aside from the winds of 130 mph (201 kph) and storm surges up to 12 feet (4 meters), Harvey was expected to drop prodigious amounts of rain - up to 3 feet. The resulting flooding, one expert said, could be "the depths of which we've never seen."

At least one researcher predicted heavy damage that would linger for months or longer.

"In terms of economic impact, Harvey will probably be on par with Hurricane Katrina," said University of Miami senior hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. "The Houston area and Corpus Christi are going to be a mess for a long time."

Before the storm arrived, home and business owners raced to nail plywood over windows and fill sandbags. Steady traffic filled the highways leaving Corpus Christi, but there were no apparent jams. In Houston, where mass evacuations can include changing major highways to a one-way vehicle flow, authorities left traffic patterns unchanged.

Federal health officials called in more than 400 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals from around the nation and planned to move two 250-bed medical units to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Other federal medical units are available in Dallas.

Just hours before the projected landfall, the governor and Houston leaders issued conflicting statements on evacuation.

After Abbott urged more people to flee, Houston authorities told people to remain in their homes and recommended no widespread evacuations.

In a Friday press conference that addressed Houston officials' decision to not have a voluntary or mandatory evacuation, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said there might be a "greater danger" in having people who don't need to be evacuated on roads that could flood.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said that because the hurricane was not taking direct aim at Houston, the city's primary concern was heavy flooding.

"We are not having a hurricane," said Emmett, the top elected official for the county, which encompasses Houston. "We are having a rain event."

At a convenience store in Houston's Meyerland neighborhood, at least 12 cars lined up for fuel. Brent Borgstedte said this was the fourth gas station he had visited to try to fill up his son's car. The 55-year-old insurance agent shrugged off Harvey's risks.

"I don't think anybody is really that worried about it. I've lived here my whole life," he said. "I've been through several hurricanes."

Scientists warned that Harvey could swamp counties more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) inland and stir up dangerous surf as far away as Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) from the projected landfall.

It may also spawn tornadoes. Even after weakening, the system might spin out into the Gulf and regain strength before hitting Houston a second time Wednesday as a tropical storm, forecasters said.

By late afternoon, the storm was centered about 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Corpus Christi, moving 10 mph (17 kph) to the northwest.

All seven Texas counties on the coast from Corpus Christi to the western end of Galveston Island ordered mandatory evacuations from low-lying areas. Four counties ordered full evacuations and warned there was no guarantee of rescue for people staying behind.

In the coastal town of Rockport, mayor pro tem Patrick Rios offered ominous advice, telling KIII-TV those who chose to stay put "should make some type of preparation to mark their arm with a Sharpie pen," implying doing so would make it easier for rescuers to identify them.

Voluntary evacuations were urged for Corpus Christi and for the Bolivar Peninsula, a sand spit near Galveston where many homes were washed away by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike in 2008.

People in the town of Port Lavaca, population 12,200, appeared to heed the danger. The community northeast of Corpus Christi was a ghost town Friday, with every business boarded up. But at a bayside RV park that looked vulnerable, John Bellah drove up in his pickup to have a look at an RV he had been told was for sale. He and his wife planned to ride out Harvey.

"This is just going to blow through," said Bellah, 72, who said he had been through Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Carla in 1961. He described those storms as "much worse."

State officials said they had no count on how many people actually left their homes.

The storm posed the first major emergency management test of President Donald Trump's administration.

The White House said Trump was closely monitoring the hurricane and planned to travel to Texas early next week to view recovery efforts. The president was expected to receive briefings during the weekend at Camp David, and signed a federal disaster declaration for six coastal counties Friday night.

Trump's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, Tom Bossert, said the administration was "bringing together the firepower of the federal government to assist the state and local governments, but the state and local governments are in the lead here."

The last Category 4 storm to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Charley in August 2004 in Florida. Superstorm Sandy, which pummeled New York and New Jersey in 2012, never had the high winds and had lost tropical status by the time it struck. But it was devastating without formally being called a major hurricane.

The heavy rain from Harvey threatened to turn many communities into "essentially islands" and leave them isolated for days, said Melissa Munguia, deputy emergency management coordinator for Nueces County.

The rain and the storm surge could collide like a car and a train, particularly in the Galveston and Houston areas, said , who works for private firm Marine Weather and Climate.

"There's absolutely nowhere for the water to go," he said. Galveston Bay, where normal rain runs off to, will already be elevated.

Rain was expected to extend into Louisiana, driven by counter-clockwise winds that could carry water from the Gulf of Mexico far inland. Forecasts called for as much as 15 inches in southwest Louisiana over the next week, and up to 6 inches in the New Orleans area.

Harvey would be the first significant hurricane to hit Texas since Ike in September 2008 brought winds of 110 mph (177 kph) to the Galveston and Houston areas, inflicting $22 billion in damage.

It's taking aim at the same vicinity as Carla, which had wind gusts estimated at 175 mph and inflicted more than $300 million in damage. The storm killed 34 people and forced about 250,000 people to evacuate.

Graczyk reported from Houston. Associated Press writers Juan Lozano and Nomaan Merchant in Houston; Frank Bajak in Corpus Christi; Seth Borenstein and Catherine Lucey in Washington; and Diana Heidgerd, Jamie Stengle and David Warren in Dallas contributed to this report.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>000 WTNT44 KNHC 240234 TCDAT4 Post-Tropical Cyclone Chantal Discussion Number 13 NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL042019 1100 PM AST Fri Aug 23 2019 Chantal has not produced organized deep convection since early this morning and is now a remnant low. Recent ASCAT data indicate that the maximum winds associated with the cyclone remain near 25 kt. The remnant low is forecast to gradually spin down during the next couple of days while it slowly makes a small clockwise loop over the central North Atlantic. By Monday, the low will likely become poorly defined and dissipate. This is the last NHC advisory on Chantal. FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS INIT 24/0300Z 35.6N 40.9W 25 KT 30 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW 12H 24/1200Z 35.1N 41.7W 25 KT 30 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW 24H 25/0000Z 34.9N 43.0W 25 KT 30 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW 36H 25/1200Z 35.4N 43.8W 20 KT 25 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW 48H 26/0000Z 35.9N 44.1W 20 KT 25 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW 72H 27/0000Z...DISSIPATED $$ Forecaster Zelinsky
In anticipation of Hurricane Harvey, residents from Corpus Christi to Galveston, Texas, and workers from Gulf of Mexico oil platforms are evacuating the region. The storm makes landfall between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor as a Category 4 hurricane around 11 p.m. EDT (0300 UTC, August 26) as the strongest storm to hit the United States mainland since 2004. The National Hurricane Center predicts Harvey will linger over Texas for days, dumping 15–25 inches (38–64 cm), and as much as 35 inches (89 cm) of rain on some parts of the state.