HOUSTON (AP) — Center Point Energy spokeswoman Alicia Dixon says utility crews have started turning off power to residents who have stayed behind in a flooded area of west Houston where Mayor Sylvester Turner ordered a mandatory evacuation.
The area is being flooded by water released from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs. Army Corps of Engineers officials say the release is necessary to ease pressure on the reservoirs from several feet of rain dumped by Harvey and to create space in case it rains again soon.
The mayor ordered the mandatory evacuation amid concerns that emergency responders couldn’t reach those areas, if needed. A fire destroyed a home in the flooded area on Saturday.
Officials say some of the homes in the evacuation area may remain flooded for two weeks.
City emergency center officials say they’re not immediately certain how many people have been holding out in their homes despite a voluntary evacuation order or how many have left since Turner Saturday made the order mandatory.
