Hurricane Harvey: Decision Not To Evacuate Houston 'Smart,' Mayor Says

HOUSTON, TX — Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner defended his decision not to order an evacuation of the city in the days and hours before Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas Coast Friday night. "No one knew what direction it would go," Turner said at a Sunday evening news conference. "How can you send your residents somewhere when you don't know where the storm's gonna go?"

Turner, who has been hammered with criticism for not ordering Houstonians to leave the city, said the "decision we made was a smart one." Thousands of residents are stranded in the rising swamp as torrential rains from the remnants of the hurricane, now Tropical Storm Harvey, inundate the Texas Gulf Coast.

National Weather Service officials say the rains, which could total 50 inches before the storm system moves out of the area, are "beyond anything" weather forecasters have ever seen.

Harvey Still Expected To Cause More Damage

Read More: Hurricane Harvey: Houston Floods 'Beyond Anything' Weather Forecasters Have Seen

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Just hours before Harvey made landfall, Turner and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett held a joint press conference to call for calm, and referred to the Category 4 storm as a major rain event.

“At this time...there will be no massive evacuations,” Turner said on Friday. “There are a few municipalities that have called for voluntary evacuations, because of the small storm surge that is coming in. We are dealing with a major rain event, and we have dealt with those in the past.”

The city of Houston has a population of about 2.5 million, and calling for a mandatory evacuation would have been nothing short of chaotic, coupled with other communities in neighboring Galveston and Brazoria counties, Turner said.

“If you think the situation right now is bad? You give an order to evacuate and you’re creating a nightmare, especially when it’s not planned,” he said.

Turner said an evacuation of that magnitude has to be coordinated; otherwise lives could be put at risk, he said.

As the storm was bearing down on Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott urged leaders of both Corpus Christi and Houston, the two largest cities in Hurricane Harvey’s path, to consider mandatory evacuations.

Corpus Christi issued a voluntary evacuation.

Abbott urged critics to let the controversy die and focus on rescues and recovery.

"We've moved beyond whether or not there should have been an evacuation or not," Abbott said. "We're at a stage where we just need to respond to the emergencies the people of Houston are facing.”

Photo: Houston Police SWAT officer Daryl Hudeck carries Catherine Pham and her 13-month-old son Aiden after rescuing them from their home surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017, in Houston. The remnants of Hurricane Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into Houston Sunday as rising water chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

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