Harvey: Toddler Clings To Mother, Helicopter Rescues, Heartbreak In Beaumont, Port Arthur

BEAUMONT, TX — Horrific scenes have numbed Americans all week as Hurricane Harvey refuses to loosen its grip on the Texas Gulf Coast and fills it like an overflowing soup bowl. Helicopters have plucked flood survivors from their rooftops, searing into our minds images like that of a little boy's anguished face as he was raised 300 feet from the ground in a basket or of storm-weary great-grandparents frantically pushed in their wheelchairs through the rising, life-threatening waters. But of all the stories and images of misery and heroism and hope that might encapsulate Hurricane Harvey and all the damage it caused was this one that chokes up even the most jaded: a 3-year-old girl in Beaumont clinging to life on the back of her mother. The mother was already dead.

As Tropical Storm Harvey bore down on Beaumont and Port Arthur, boats went door to door and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott dispatched the Texas National Guard to assist in rescues. "The worst is not over for southeast Texas," Abbott said at a news conference early Wednesday afternoon. The Sabine and Neches rivers are expected to flood, increasing the likelihood of more scenes of human misery that flat-out wound our hearts — like the one of the toddler.

Her mother was trying to escape the rising swamp, but her car sputtered out in the flood. She started walking and rescuers saw the child clutching to her mother as she floated about a mile from their vehicle. As they drifted toward a railroad trestle, the situation became more urgent. They would be lost forever without swift action.

READ: Harvey Continues Wrath While Houston Rescues And Recovers

They pulled the baby to to safety, then her mother. The baby was suffering from hypothermia, but was expected to be released from the hospital yet Wednesday. Refusing to accept it was too late to save her, rescuers took turns performing CPR on the mother, identified by Beaumont police as Colette Sulcer, 41, until the ambulance came.

More Counties Added To Disaster List

The governor added that several counties in that part of the state, including Hardin, Jasper, Newton, Orange, Sabine and San Jacinto, have been added to the state's disaster request.

Residents of those counties should go to www.disasterassistance.gov to register with FEMA.

Beaumont and Port Arthur both received about 30 inches of rain — a record for both — on Tuesday alone.

Things became so bad that evacuees who sought safety at the Robert Bowers Civil Center in Port Arthur, where they brought precious few belongings, were forced to go evacuate again when the civic center flooded. Local television there showed photos of residents on cots surrounded by water.

Port Arthur tweeted a desperate plea for people with boats.

The mayor of Port Arthur is hoping something akin to the "Cajun Navy" that has come to the rescue in Houston will head their way.

Residents of Port Arthur, also famously the home of the great Janis Joplin, were told by their mayor to seek higher ground.

Mayor Derrick Freeman cautioned people to stay out of attics where they could be trapped by the rising waters.

Freeman has been posting video on his Facebook page.

Freeman wrote that dump trucks are headed to different neighborhoods to assist.

"Our whole city is underwater right now but we are coming!" he wrote. "If you called, we are coming."

"If you need rescued please display a white towel, sheet, shirt or anything to let volunteer rescuers know," the city said via Twitter.

Two Port Arthur nursing homes flooded resulting in calls for help to rescue the residents.

"We need to get them out of here," an employee of the Lake Arthur Place nursing home told a reporter for a local news station.

"We don't have much food. We've got water but we need the right foods to feed them and mediation administration."

The station reports that some of the patients are bedridden.

A reporter for another station tweeted out a photo of the situation.

Meanwhile, Beaumont says it has been trying to dispel some rumors that have been circulating around the city — such as one that the city was turning off water.

"At this time the water utilities are functioning properly and there is no plan to turn off water," the city says on its website.

"There is widespread inaccurate information being circulated and we want to encourage everyone to only get their information only from official sources."

The city suggests following the city's website at www.beaumonthtexas.gov and the Beaumont Police Department's Facebook page.

The Texas Department of Transportation's Beaumont District tweeted out video of a cattle drive with the livestock seeking higher ground.

Even though the rain has stopped in Houston, the flooding continues, and the scope of the destruction is not yet known. At least 18 are dead, and tens of thousands are in shelters as the city tries to come to grips with the storm that will take years to recover from.

Volunteer rescuer workers help a woman from her home that was inundated with the flooding of Hurricane Harvey on August 30, 2017 in Port Arthur, Texas. Harvey, which made landfall north of Corpus Christi late Friday evening, is expected to dump upwards to 40 inches of rain in Texas over the next couple of days. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)