Culture

Hurricane Harvey Becomes A Massive Category 4 Storm Mere Hours Before Making Landfall In Texas

Not long after Hurricane Harvey was upgraded to a Category 3 storm on Friday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center updated its official assessment of the ever-intensifying storm. The Associated Press now reports that Harvey, which is slated to hit just north of the coastal city of Corpus Christi first, is now a Category 4 hurricane. This means that the massive front currently barreling towards Texas and parts of Louisiana can sustain winds of up to 130 mph. As for Harvey’s timeline, experts are predicting that the storm will ultimately strike land late Friday night or early Saturday morning, at the latest.

Harvey, which meteorologists were predicting would bring “astounding” strength and produce “life-threatening” floods along the Texas and Louisiana coastlines long before it reached Category 3 status, will prove disastrous for the region. It will also be unique, as the last Category 4 storm to make landfall in Texas was Hurricane Carla in 1961. According to meteorologist Eric Holthaus, Harvey will be the seventh hurricane of such magnitude to strike Texas since storms were first recorded, and the third during the last 100 years. Or as another popular tweet pointed out, smart phones didn’t exist during America’s last Category 4 storm.

President Trump tweeted out on Friday evening before going on vacation that at the request of the governor of Texas, he signed the Disaster Proclamation, which would ensure that the affected areas would given the help they require.

(Via Associated Press and CNN)