HOUSTON (CBSNews) — Aircrews with the U.S. Coast Guard rescued 17 residents in distress Saturday (Aug. 26), as Harvey caused widespread destruction in southern parts of the state.

Two helicopters aircrews were dispatched to help ships near Port Aransas, Texas, earlier Saturday after receiving distress calls.

They rescued seven people from a tugboat near Aransas Pass, four people from the vessel Signet Enterprise and four others aboard the vessel Sandy Point.

“This was a great effort between our Coast Guard aircrews and Signet Constellation’s crew in very dangerous conditions,” Capt. Tony Hahn, commander of Sector Corpus Christi, said in a statement.

Video shot by the Coast Guard showed rescuers pulling people in life jackets from the water near the Signet Enterprise as it took on water and appeared to be sinking.

Harvey was the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. in over a decade, and the most powerful storm to hit Texas since 1961. The storm made landfall late Friday (Aug. 25) night as a Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of 130 mph that whipped coastal communities overnight. Winds slowed throughout Saturday as Harvey was downgraded to a Category 1 storm and then to a tropical storm.

Two others were rescued in Houston after a Coast Guard crew spotted and hoisted a man, woman and their dog to safety around 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. The residents were sent to a hospital in Corpus Christi where they were reportedly in good condition.</s>000 WTNT34 KNHC 240234 TCPAT4 BULLETIN Post-Tropical Cyclone Chantal Advisory Number 13 NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL042019 1100 PM AST Fri Aug 23 2019 ...CHANTAL BECOMES A REMNANT LOW... ...THIS IS THE LAST ADVISORY... SUMMARY OF 1100 PM AST...0300 UTC...INFORMATION ----------------------------------------------- LOCATION...35.6N 40.9W ABOUT 785 MI...1265 KM W OF THE AZORES MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...30 MPH...45 KM/H PRESENT MOVEMENT...S OR 185 DEGREES AT 6 MPH...9 KM/H MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1014 MB...29.95 INCHES WATCHES AND WARNINGS -------------------- There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect. DISCUSSION AND OUTLOOK ---------------------- At 1100 PM AST (0300 UTC), the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Chantal was located near latitude 35.6 North, longitude 40.9 West. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the south near 6 mph (9 km/h). A turn toward the southwest and west is expected over the weekend, followed by a slow motion toward the northwest Sunday night and Monday. Maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph (45 km/h) with higher gusts. Gradual weakening is anticipated and Chantal is forecast to dissipate on Monday. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1014 mb (29.95 inches). HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND ---------------------- None. NEXT ADVISORY ------------- This is the last public advisory issued by the National Hurricane Center on Chantal. Additional information on this system can be found in High Seas Forecasts issued by the National Weather Service, under AWIPS header NFDHSFAT1, WMO header FZNT01 KWBC, and online at ocean.weather.gov/shtml/NFDHSFAT1.php $$ Forecaster Zelinsky</s>The fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade came ashore late Friday about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi as a mammoth Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds. Harvey weakened to a tropical storm by midday Saturday and by 4 a.m. Sunday the National Hurricane Center said Harvey continued to cause “catastrophic flooding in southeastern Texas.”

Tracking Harvey is not easy. There is no exact consensus for what it will do long term, and the most likely scenario is the storm meanders around the region for a couple of days.

More: Why Hurricane Harvey's future is so uncertain, hard to predict

The National Weather Service is cautioning that the continued threat of Harvey, which is now pummeling Houston with heavy rainfall, is flash flooding.

Here's more of what we know about Harvey at the moment:

Where is the storm now?

The hurricane center says in its 4 a.m. Sunday update that Harvey remains stationary about 45 miles northwest of Victoria, Texas.

Are there any deaths?

At least two people have died from the storm.

Aransas County Sheriff Bill Mills said Saturday that a man was discovered dead in his home, which was destroyed by a fire. Mills also said 30 to 40 people remained unaccounted for as of Saturday evening.

Late Saturday, a Houston official confirmed a death there due to flooding, when a woman apparently tried to exit her car on a flooded road.

How strong is the storm?

Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm Saturday afternoon, with sustained winds weakening from 60 mph down to 45 mph, the National Weather Service said.

What is the damage?

Authorities don't know the full scope of damage because weather conditions are preventing emergency crews from getting into the hardest-hit places.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said about 300,000 customers were without power statewide and it would probably be several days before electricity is restored.

Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 that was directly in the storm’s path. The mayor said his community took a blow “right on the nose” that left “widespread devastation,” including homes, businesses and schools that were heavily damaged. Some structures were destroyed.

The Corpus Christi port was closed with extensive damage. Because the city is the third-largest petrochemical port in the nation, the agency will be on the lookout for spills, Hahn said.

“It was like being in another world,” said David Cameron, assistant chief of the volunteer fire department in Fulton, a seaside community just north of Rockport. “And there’s still a lot to do.”

More: Hurricane Harvey: Beautiful but terrifying images of a monster storm

Related: Why Hurricane Harvey's future is so uncertain, hard to predict

Update on shooting @ 7100 Ficus Ct. homeowner shot intruder. Victim @ Hosp. with gunshot wound was coherent when medics took him. PIO Pace



 The hurricane also left some 20,000 passengers stranded on four cruise ships that found conditions too dangerous to return to Galveston, KTRK-TV reported. The Carnival Valor and Carnival Freedom, which planned to return to Galveston on Friday, will instead head for New Orleans, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Is the storm still a threat?

The National Weather Service warned Saturday morning that water, not wind, is the biggest threat to life, adding, "Danger from #Harvey still very real."

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HAS REQUESTED: IF HIGHEST FLOOR OF YOUR HOME BECOMES DANGEROUS...GET ON THE ROOF. #houwx #glswx #txwx #Harvey



 Rainfall totals varied across the region, with Corpus Christi and Galveston receiving around 3 inches (8 centimeters), Houston 7 (18 centimeters) and Aransas 10 (25 centimeters). Tiny Austwell got 15 inches (38 centimeters).

Harvey "may be nothing short of a flooding disaster," for Texas, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski, who said some communities could be underwater for days. Forecasters were already measuring 28-foot-high waves near the eye of the storm.

How has the federal government responded?

The hurricane posed the first major emergency management test of President Trump’s administration.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) granted Abbott's request for a Presidential Disaster Declaration in response to the hurricane. Ahead of the storm, Abbott declared a state of disaster for 30 counties.

President Trump said on Twitter Saturday that his office would "remain fully engaged w/ open lines of communication." Trump also tweeted that he was in contact with the governors of Texas and Louisiana. "I have spoken w/ @GovAbbot of Texas and @LouisianaGov Edwards. Closely monitoring #HurricaneHarvey developments & here to assist as needed," Trump's tweet read.

At the request of the Governor of Texas, I have signed the Disaster Proclamation, which unleashes the full force of government help!



 How does it compare to past hurricanes in the U.S.?

Harvey was the first major hurricane — classified as Category 3 or above — to hit the U.S. in over a decade when it made landfall as a Category 4 storm. It was the strongest to strike Texas since 1961’s Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

#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.

RELATED | From Dennis to Matthew: All the hurricanes that hit the U.S. since 2005</s>Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coastline late Friday night as a Category 4 storm, bringing with it damaging winds and torrential downpours. Hundreds of miles of the state's coastline braced for what forecasters predicted would be catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surges.

The storm was downgraded to a tropical storm Friday afternoon.

CBS News science contributor Michio Kaku joined "CBS This Morning: Saturday" to discuss the science behind what causes storms like Harvey to form, what damage is still to come as the storm slowly moves across Texas and how dangerous storm surges happen.

"If it lingers over the land it could cause massive flooding. Then, watch out, if it goes back into the Gulf it could get re-energized and create a second, even a third landfall. So the agony has just begun with this hurricane of the decade," Kaku said.

Hurricanes, fueled by warm waters, tend to gain a lot of strength over places like the Gulf of Mexico.

"A hurricane is sort of like a bowling ball. They form off the coast of Africa as a small breeze and then they gather energy as they go toward warm water across the Atlantic," Kaku said. "This hurricane went right into the Gulf."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast predicted there would be 11 to 17 named storms and two to four "major" hurricanes this year -- an above normal season for the Atlantic.

"The Gulf of Mexico is two degrees warmer than normal and that has set off alarm bells in Washington. Just last month, the government issued a warning stating that because of the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico this hurricane season -- which goes on until the end of November -- could be one of the worst in memory. So, watch out, there could be more monster hurricanes to come," he said.

Storm surges caused by Harvey were of particular concern for forecasters who said they pose a grave risk for those in the storm's path.

"Storm surges could be 12, 13 feet tall and as the waves that are whipped around at 130 mph, sometimes they get bunched up as they go toward land and that's when you get these huge monster waves hitting the coast," Kaku said.

While Kaku doesn't believe the damage done by Harvey will be as costly as Hurricanes Katrina or Sandy, he does believe it could be "among the top 10."

"It's stationary right now, it could cause a tremendous amount of flooding, blackouts, evacuations and it could get re-energized again so we're just seeing beginning of the agony," he warned.</s>At least one death was reported Saturday as Texans who rode out the most powerful hurricane to hit the United States in a decade ventured out to find “widespread devastation,” with a downgraded Hurricane Harvey lumbering north in what was “now turning into a deadly inland event.”

The first fatality was reported in the hard-hit coastal city of Rockport, where the person died in a house fire during the storm, Aransas County Judge Burt Mills said Saturday afternoon. “We didn’t know about it until today,” he said.

At least a dozen people were injured, Mills said.

With dire warnings of tornadoes, torrential downpours and days of flooding to come, broad swaths of southeast Texas were littered with uprooted trees, toppled signs, flagpoles that snapped like toothpicks and clusters of bricks peeled like scabs from walls and rooftops.

Additional fatalities were feared in coastal Rockport, where an estimated 5,000 residents had stayed put for the storm that blasted ashore as a Category 4 around 11 p.m. ET Friday between Port Aransas and Port O’Connor, Aransas County Sheriff Bill Mills said.

Callers to the local emergency dispatch line told of walls and roofs collapsing on people across the city, where an official had warned those who opted to stick out the storm to write their Social Security numbers on their arms for body identification.

Shortly after Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm, with sustained winds of 70 mph, Saturday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters that the state had more than 1,000 workers involved in search and rescue operations.

“There’s been widespread devastation,” Rockport Mayor Charles Wax told CNN late Saturday morning. He said emergency workers were going house to house to check on residents and assess damage.

“We’ve already taken a severe blow from the storm, but we’re anticipating another one when the flooding comes,” he said.

The storm was a Category 1 by late Saturday morning, packing winds of 75 mph as it slowed its trek northward to just 2 mph. Some places even far inland were predicted to get as much as 40 inches of rain through Wednesday.

While the worst of the storm surge had ended by midday Saturday, the coastal flooding threat was due to increase as already-swollen rivers and bayous get pounded with heavy rain, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said. Sea water pushed onto the shore also won’t recede quickly, he said, meaning “this is going to be a long, ongoing flood event.”

Abbott said the 210-mile-long corridor between Corpus Christi and Houston was expected to receive as much as 30 more inches of rain on top of the double-digit rainfall figures that had already fallen.

Harvey wielded the “highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of damage,” Brock Long, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had warned. He echoed forecasters who predicted Harvey would be leave areas “uninhabitable for weeks or months,” echoing language last seen ahead of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

— Even after weakening upon landfall, Harvey was still a dangerous storm and “turning into a deadly inland event,” the FEMA chief tweeted.

— Due to stall over Texas, Harvey could maintain tropical storm strength through early Monday, then weaken into a tropical depression, the National Weather Service predicted.

— Parts of southeastern Texas remained under a flash flood watch through Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service office in Houston said.

— More than 300,000 customers on the Texas Gulf Coast had no power around 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said, amid reports of downed power lines and trees.

— Heavy rain from Harvey’s bands also had reached flood-prone Houston, about 150 miles from the point of landfall.

— A tide gauge in Port Lavaca, Texas, reported a storm surge of 6.4 feet, the National Hurricane Center said early Saturday.

— Structural and building problems were reported in Rockport, Aransas Pass, and Port Aransas, Texas, said Tom Beal, a meteorologist with National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi.

— Corpus Christi officials tweeted Saturday afternoon that evacuees could return “but be advised we are under a water boil advisory & limited wastewater usage due to outages at treatment plants.”

— President Donald Trump tweeted early Saturday that he’s “closely monitoring” Harvey from Camp David, Maryland. Trump, who plans to visit the storm zone next week, has signed a disaster declaration for Texas.

Firefighters who hunkered down in their station in Rockport as Harvey passed over the city of about 10,000 residents recounted a harrowing night.

The wind was “howling,” said Roy Laird, assistant chief of the city’s volunteer fire department. “We had probably 140-mph winds earlier.”

For hours, Karl Hattman and his family listened to “what sounded like a freight train” roar outside their Rockport home. When the fury calmed, they headed out into the darkness to find many trees down, debris blocking their driveway and Hattman’s vehicle damaged by flying roof tiles.

Robert Jackson also likened the force of the storm in Rockport to a passing freight train — one with “square wheels.” He didn’t sleep all night.

“It was about the most stressful thing I’ve ever been through,” he said, adding, “It’s my last one to ride out, I’ll tell you that.”

Joey Walker, 25, rode out the storm at a house on Galveston Island. The Galveston Island Beach Patrol employee posted video of near-white out conditions overlooking Stewart Beach.

As rain bands reached Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner urged drivers to stay off the roads.

“This is going to be a major rainmaker,” he told CNN Saturday. “We anticipate four to five days of this.”

“This thing is turning into quite the marathon,” Nick Gignac, of Corpus Christi, told CNN around 2 a.m. ET. “You expect these things to be a quicker flash-and-bang than they are. To be honest, the intensity still hasn’t let up as the storm came in. Things were a little lighter than they are right now, and you expect it to get intense and let up. And things have not let up at all.”

In San Antonio, about 950 people took refuge in shelters, Woody Woodward, a spokesman for the city fire department, told CNN, adding that there was still plenty of space for more people.

Ten critically ill babies in Corpus Christi were taken to a hospital in North Texas ahead of the storm, the Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth said in a statement.

“All our babies made it here safely,” Dawn Lindley, a registered nurse with Children’s Health Transport Team, told CNN. “The majority … were premature and had ongoing issues. They were easily accommodated to the hospitals here to make sure they had continued care and the storm wasn’t going to be a factor in how they recovered from their illnesses.”</s>CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) – The Latest on Hurricane Harvey (all times local):

President Donald Trump has commended the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for his handling of the hurricane now hitting the Texas Gulf Coast.

In a tweet Saturday morning addressed to FEMA head Brock Long, Trump said: “You are doing a great job – the world is watching! Be safe.”

Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, is posing the first major emergency management test of Trump’s administration.

In a separate tweet, Trump said he is monitoring the hurricane closely from Camp David and “We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!”

He also tweeted that “We have fantastic people on the ground, got there long before #Harvey. So far, so good!”

Harvey has been further downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane as it churns slowly inland from the Texas Gulf Coast, already depositing more than 9 inches of rain in South Texas.

Harvey made landfall about 10 p.m. Friday east-northeast of Corpus Christi as a Category 4, with winds in excess of 130 mph (210 kph).

But wind speeds quickly weakened and by early Saturday Harvey was downgraded. It continues to produce gusts of up to 120 mph (193 kph) and sustained winds of 90 mph (144 kph). The National Hurricane Center warns of “catastrophic flooding” over the next few days.

Emergency personnel in coastal communities like Rockport, just northeast of Corpus Christi, say there’s broad damage to buildings. But Rockport Volunteer Fire Department Chief Steve Sims said early Saturday that firefighters were hunkered down at the city’s fire station waiting for conditions to improve to assess the damage.

Hurricane Harvey has settled over southeast Texas, dumping rain and lashing the state’s Gulf Coast with damaging winds.

The storm made landfall Friday night as a Category 4 with 130 mph (209 kph) winds. It gradually weakened over the next several hours and by early Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said it back to a Category 2 – still sustaining winds of 110 mph (185 kph) as of 3 a.m.

Early damage reports from Gulf Coast cities included collapsed roofs and walls. One community transported multiple people from a senior living home to the county jail for treatment after a roof caved in.

But officials remained largely unable to assess the damage before daylight.

The storm is expected to slow further and flood the area with rain through the middle of next week. The center warned that Harvey could produce life-threatening storm surges along a coastal area of more than 400 miles (643 kilometers).</s>Officers have reported the shooting took place at 11pm local time (5am BST) as the most powerful parts of the storm near the city.

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 US mainland.

The hurricane arrived on the coast northeast of Corpus Christi around 10pm CDT (4am BST) with maximum winds of 130mph.</s>Hurricane Harvey reserved its full ferocity for small towns along the Texas coast north of Corpus Christi, including Rockport, Texas, where storm chasers captured the scene.

Josh Morgerman, who chases tropical cyclones like Harvey around the world, described the storm as "One of the worst hurricanes I've ever been in." The hotel he was staying in for shelter was nearly blown apart by the storm's 130-mile-per-hour sustained winds, along with higher gusts.

On Saturday morning, Morgerman posted that Rockport has been "smashed, stripped, and scrubbed" by the winds and storm surge from Harvey. Hurricane Harvey was the most intense storm to strike the U.S. since 2005 — before Twitter existed.

During the storm, chaser Jeff Piotrowski livestreamed the strongest part of the storm as the eyewall came ashore in Rockport. The video was viewed 1.2 million times as of Saturday morning, and caused many people to fear for his life as the building he was taking shelter under gave way to the wind Friday night.

According to reports on Twitter early Saturday, he and his chase partners survived the ordeal.

Reed Timmer, a storm chaser for AccuWeather, recorded this video of the eye wall — which contains the storm's strongest winds — moving onshore in Rockport.

On Friday night, the big story was Hurricane Harvey's Category 4 intensity winds and storm surge flood. But as of Saturday morning, forecasters have shifted their attention to tracking the storm's potentially epic deluge.

Up to 40 inches of rain could fall on Southeast Texas by the time the storm winds down next week, which would cause a flood disaster of historic proportions. Perhaps these storm chasers are going to be sticking around to film the rains and slower-moving floods, which are likely to be more destructive and life-threatening than what they experienced on Friday night into early Saturday morning.</s>UPDATE: Harvey weakens into Tropical Storm with sustained winds of 70 mph

ROCKPORT, Texas - Harvey rolled onto shore overnight as a powerful Category 4 storm. It has now been downgraded to a Tropical Storm.

> WATCH: New video; overnight video shows first images of damage from Harvey; watch HERE

As of Saturday morning, as many as ten people had been injured and taken to a makeshift hospital at an area jail. Damaged was reported to numerous buildings. Roofs collapsed at a local nursing home and high school.

Rockport is just up the shoreline from Corpus Christi, Texas. The storm packed 130 mph winds as it blasted the region.

As the sun rose Saturday, crews were just able to safely survey the damage. Damage reports will likely be coming in all day.

The storm was downgraded by Saturday morning to a Category 1 but still posed a significant threat to the Texas coast because of large amounts of rainfall expected. People as far north as Houston could feel the impacts of significant rain and possible flooding later Saturday. Some areas could receive more than 35 inches of rain.

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 and strengthened again around 6 o'clock Friday to become a Category 4.

While Texas will most likely bear the brunt of the approaching Hurricane Harvey, bands of rain from the storm have been sweeping over parts of Louisiana. Flood warnings have been issued along some southwest Louisiana rivers with forecasters saying some low-lying roads and recreational areas are threatened. And officials worry that rain could last for several days, raising worries of more serious flooding.

The slow-moving storm's unpredictable long-term path had the attention of both state and local officials.

Official calls for evacuations were issued Friday in parts of Cameron and Vermilion parishes where forecasters say rainfall totals could approach 15 to 20 inches over the next seven days.

Rainfall projections for New Orleans are lower. But officials urged vigilance there, noting that a change in the storm's track could increase flood dangers.

This Weekend: The weather should be fairly typical of August with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Due to the tropical air mass in place, any thunderstorms will be efficient at producing rain and downpours could leave behind a quick inch or two in isolated locations. Keep in mind though, nothing widespread is expected and some areas will actually stay dry. There certainly does not appear to be any need to cancel plans through Sunday. High temperatures will be just a few degrees shy of normal--in the upper 80s--due to increased cloud cover and pockets of rain. Nighttime lows will be in the mid 70s as usual.

Next Week: While the evolution of the storm system remains uncertain, it is becoming a bit more clear than last week. By Monday, whatever remains of Harvey is expected to stay over southeastern Texas. However, at the same time, two upper level ridges east and west of the area, are expected to weaken and "unclog" the stalled pattern. As a result, there will be increased development of showers and thunderstorms across southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi. Meanwhile, moisture content in the atmosphere will remain very high and some pockets of heavy rain could become established--especially Monday and Tuesday. It is worth pointing out that areas on the eastern side of an inland tropical system often see isolated tornadoes as well. Be on alert for any warnings issued. The remnants of Harvey could continue to bring unsettled weather to the western and central Gulf Coast straight through the week.

With regard to the rainfall forecast, persistence remains the name of the game. The WBRZ Weather Team still expects the Baton Rouge area to receive 4-7 inches of rain through Friday. Certainly, there could be isolated amounts twice as high bringing the potential for flash flooding and river flooding. The National Weather Service is planning to issue a Flash Flood Watch for the area later this weekend to highlight that possibility. The highest rainfall totals will likely occur closer to the stalled front which is expected to remain along the Louisiana coast. Areas from Morgan City to Houma to Grand Isle could see nearly 10 inches of rain.

It is still just a little early to tell how local rivers could be affected. Only the next 48 hours of forecast rainfall is factored into predicted river levels. Since the heaviest rain is expected next week, it may not be until Sunday that we know what kind of rises may occur. The National Weather Service has issued a special hydrologic outlook to highlight the potential for rises on area rivers. As usual, the Amite, Comite, Tickfaw and Tangipahoa will be most vulnerable some residents nearby should take the necessary precautions, just in case river flooding occurs.

Keep in mind, flooding is not imminent, simply a possibility which is why the WBRZ Weather Team encourages the Baton Rouge area, counties in Southwest Mississippi and especially parishes along the southeast Louisiana coast to monitor the forecast as it evolves. Plan to get frequent forecast updates from the WBRZ Weather Team on News 2, wbrz.com, Facebook, Twitter and the WBRZ WX App. on Apple and Android devices. As always during hurricane season, stay prepared and review plans.</s>Tropical Storm Harvey battered southeastern Texas this weekend, forcing key oil and gas facilities on the U.S. Gulf Coast to shutter.

About a quarter of the oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico was shut down as of Saturday, according to the Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. That amounts to nearly 430,000 barrels of oil per day.

The bureau also estimated that about 26% of natural gas production in the Gulf has been shut in. Federal officials are expected to have an update around 2 p.m. ET Sunday.

Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane late Friday, but was downgraded to a tropical storm by mid-Saturday. But it continued to dump huge amounts of rain on Houston and cause dangerous flooding that could get worse.

The area is home to nearly one-third of the nation's capacity to turn oil into gas, diesel and other products. Federal officials said Saturday that workers from 112 oil and gas production platforms had been evacuated. All told, 737 platforms in the Gulf are staffed with workers.

Harvey is the first major storm to seriously threaten the Gulf Coast energy sector in awhile.

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008, as well as Hurricane Isaac in 2012, all knocked more than 1 million barrels of Gulf oil production offline, according to the EIA. Those hurricanes also temporarily disrupted refining capacity.

Hurricanes that land in Texas tend to have little impact on oil production, but more significant consequences for refining, according to Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

Earlier forecasts showed Harvey staying clear of refineries in the Houston area, but the storm still threatened plants in the Corpus Christi region.

Harvey forced about 900,000 barrels per day of the state's refining capacity to shut down, mostly around Corpus Christi, according to S&P Global Platts.

That included a Valero Energy (VLO) plant that produced 293,000 barrels per day, as well as a Citgo refinery that produced 157,500 barrels.

Related: Impact Your World - How you can help Harvey's victims

Houston also marks the beginning of the Colonial Pipeline, which transports more than 100 million gallons of gasoline, heating oil and aviation fuel each day to as far as the New York harbor. Power outages during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 forced the shutdown of parts of the Colonial Pipeline for several days.

Kloza said that normally refining is knocked offline for just a brief time, making the impact on prices fleeting. But that depends on the severity of the storm.

"Katrina was the exception," Kloza said, referring to the 2005 storm that badly damaged Gulf Coast operations.

He predicted on Thursday that Harvey is likely to cause only a short-term jump in gas prices of 5 to 10 cents per gallon, though he said a 25-cent spike in a worst-case scenario was also possible.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline nationwide has ticked up a few cents in recent days, according to AAA.

"You're talking about a situation where a month from now gas prices will probably be lower. But a week from now they'll be higher," said Kloza.
Harvey is now a tropical storm with sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kmh). It made landfall on Texas's eastern coast, the eye striking the town of Rockport, as a Category 4 hurricane. It's the strongest storm to hit the state since 1961. Harvey is expected to maintain tropical storm strength, with heavy rains and flooding, for at least four days.