Strong winds have begun affecting sections of Texas as Hurricane Harvey inches closer.
Hurricane Harvey has begun swiping the Texas coast as 40 inches of rain and catastrophic storm-surge flooding were predicted after landfall late Friday or early Saturday.
The US National Hurricane Center said the combination of heavy rain, life-threatening storm surges, flooding and strong winds could leave wide swaths of South Texas uninhabitable for weeks or months.
Harvey, which strengthened to a category 4 storm, has maximum sustained winds of 130 mph with even stronger gusts, and is expected to be the worst to hit the state in decades. The last Category 4 storm to hit the U.S. was Charley in 2004 in Florida, while the last Category 4 storm to hit Texas was Carla in 1961.
The storm is expected to make landfall around Corpus Christi.
A hurricane warning is in effect for about 1.5 million people, with another 16 million under a tropical storm warning.
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