Care centers for residents fleeing Hurricane Harvey in Texas have flooded as rain from Tuesday, Aug. 29, night overflowed the facilities.
Two senior care facilities in Port Arthur—Cypress Glen and Lake Arthur Place—trapped residents inside when water rose overnight. The centers said in a statement that “We will evacuate if rescue teams can make it to the buildings. We are notifying families this [Wednesday] morning,” weather.com reported.
“No one can get in and no one can get out,” a staff member at Lake Arthur Place told weather.com. “We can’t see the fire hydrants, and we can barely see our sign.”
Early on Wednesday morning officials announced they would be evacuating everyone from the over-flooded shelters and moving them to another location.
But the evacuation process is taking longer than expected as residents inside the shelters said they have only been moved up to the bleachers in the gym but not out of the building as of writing, KHOU-TV a CBS-affiliate reported.
According to one evacuee, the water started flowing into the shelter around 8 p.m on Tuesday and within just 20 minutes the whole floor had been flooded.
Residents have taken to Twitter to show the flooded facilities and call for help.
This tweet shows how residents have moved to higher seats in the facility, but have yet to be fully evacuated.
Another tweet asks for help.
Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman said on Wednesday morning that another shelter was now open for residents still seeking shelter. But he said on Twitter that there were no supplies at the facility yet.
The mayor urged that any resident in need of rescuing to display a white towel, sheet, or anything to let volunteer rescuers know who needs help.