As Hurricane Harvey made its way to the USA, residents of Houston, the country’s fourth largest city, were told not to leave.

They were told it’s all going to be OK.

However, Harvey hit the city wham-bam in the middle after making landfall on Friday and, although downgraded to a tropical storm Saturday, devastation ensued.

The rain it brought resulted in unprecedented flooding of the southeast of Texas, inundating homes and submerging highways.

While there were many victims, a now-viral photo shared on Twitter by Tim McIntosh on Sunday showed at least eight women and a cat trapped in a room filled with water.

The women were residents of assisted living centre La Vita Bella, owned by Tim’s mother.

Take a look:

Tim received the photo via email around 8AM on Sunday, after which no contact followed. He then tweeted the image along with a cry for help:

Need help asap emergency services please RETWEET.

The tweet’s attention resulted in quick action from local rescue teams. David Popoff, an emergency management coordinator, confirmed that 15 people were eventually rescued from La Vita Bella, situated 48 km south of Houston in Dickinson, reports The Telegraph:

“We were air-lifting grandmothers and grandfathers,” Mr Popoff told The Galveston County Daily News.

It is not known when conditions will let up, as rain is expected to continue through the middle of this week:

“The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before,” the National Weather Service said in a statement Sunday.

“Catastrophic flooding is now underway and expected to continue for days.”

No word on whether the cat is safe.

Trump’s reaction to Harvey?

He focused on the tropical storm’s size, as well as the brilliance of rescue efforts, rather than the impact it had on the victims, once again proving his priorities are questionable:

I’m surprised he didn’t use the word “bigly”.

I guess the real test is how well Trump will manage the after-effects of the devastation from here on out.

[source:time&telegraph]