“I’m really worried about how many bodies we’re going to find.”

One Houston woman said Monday that she presumes six members of a family, including four of her grandchildren, died after their van sank into Greens Bayou in East Houston. “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. 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. 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. Nevertheless, forecasters said the rain is pretty much over for the Houston area, and the water is already back within its channels in some places. 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. Mayor Sylvester Turner says areas on the east and west sides of the city are still dealing with flooding issues, but the rest of Houston is "drying out and drying out well" and traffic is returning to the streets. The Harris County Director for FEMA says the federal disaster agency is looking for unique ways to house the tens of thousands of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Harvey. 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. Officials said 911 call centers in the Houston area were still getting more than 1,000 calls an hour from people seeking help. This is where I’m from.”

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 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. The fires and two explosions that rocked the Arkema Inc. plant northeast of Houston ignited a 30- to 40-foot flame and sent up a plume of smoke that the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency initially described as “incredibly dangerous.” FEMA later backed away from that statement, saying that Administrator Brock Long issued the warning out of an abundance of caution. “But it’s a tough city, and we’re going to make this into a positive and come together.”

The dead include a former football and track coach in suburban Houston and a woman who died after she and her young daughter were swept into a rain-swollen drainage canal in Beaumont. 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. Meanwhile, the Texas community of Port Arthur found itself increasingly isolated Wednesday as Harvey’s rains flooded most major roads out of the city and swamped a storm shelter. Lindner says “we’re getting very close to the peak of both reservoirs.”

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. “I couldn’t sit at home and watch it on TV and do nothing since I have a boat and all the tools to help,” he said. 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. Harvey’s five straight days of rain totaled close to 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S.

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.
A Harris County Flood Control District official says at the height of the flooding, 70 percent of the county’s 1,800 square miles, which includes the city of Houston, was covered with at least 1.5 feet of water, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.