HOUSTON (AP) — The medical examiner in Harris County, Texas, has confirmed another Harvey-related fatality.
The man found floating in Cypress Creek floodwaters brings the confirmed toll to 44 from Harvey, eight days after the storm made landfall as a hurricane.
Harris County is home to Houston. The addition to a list kept by the Harris County Institute for Forensic Sciences brings the total deaths in the county to 29.
Authorities say the family of an elderly woman found her body partially submerged in water in her flooded home in Port Arthur, Texas.
Justice of the Peace Brad Burnett told TV station KFDM on Saturday that the body of 88-year-old Dorothy Helen Lacobie in her bedroom.
Burnett says the house had at least 2 feet (60 centimeters) of water in it.
The mayor of Houston has ordered mandatory evacuations for people who haven’t left their homes in part of the city that remains flooded more than a week after Harvey dumped 50-plus inches of rain in spots.
Mayor Sylvester Turner on Saturday said about 300 people have stayed behind in western stretches of the city inundated by water that the Army Corp of Engineers has released from reservoirs. The mayor is now ordering those people to leave.
There are 4,700 dwellings in the flooded area, including houses and apartments. Turner asked residents in the area to leave Friday. On Saturday he said those who had stayed behind were endangering themselves and first responders.
A representative for CenterPoint Energy said the utility would start cutting power to homes in the area at 7 a.m. Sunday.
Forecasters say what’s left of Harvey is no longer a flood or heavy rainfall threat. National Weather Service meteorologist David Roth says the storm system still has rain, but not much more than moderate rain. Roth says it may still exist as a remnant low pressure system through Sunday.
Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 25 in Texas, then went back out to sea and lingered off the coast as a tropical storm for days. The storm brought five straight days of rain totaling close to 52 inches (1.3 meters) in one location, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S.
A public information officer from the city of Houston says about 1,000 hurricane evacuees remain at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Evangelina Vigil, a spokeswoman for the department of neighborhoods, gave The Associated Press the updated number Saturday afternoon. At one time, there were about 10,000 evacuees in the mega-shelter.
The Red Cross said Saturday that a total of 37,000 people stayed in shelters on Friday night due to Harvey.
On Saturday, people still housed at the convention center lined up to file FEMA claims and took photos with Shasta, the University of Houston mascot, while others prayed with a Catholic priest.
