Rick Jervis and John Bacon

USA TODAY Network

HOUSTON — Rescue boats, high-water vehicles, kayaks and even jet skis searched flood-swollen streets Tuesday for trapped, desperate residents as relentless Tropical Storm Harvey trudged east toward Louisiana.

River levels marched higher, swelled by days of relentless rain. A reservoir splashed over its banks, another threatened to overflow, and authorities in Brazoria County, south of Houston, announced a levee breach.

"GET OUT NOW!!" Brazoria County officials urged residents near the Columbia Lakes levee via Twitter.

In a news conference Tuesday evening, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner imposed a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew for the city after warning residents about people impersonating law enforcement officers. Turner later announced via Twitter that he was pushing back the start time to midnight, "... to allow volunteers and others to do their great work."

Early Wednesday, the city issued a statement warning people of Homeland Security imposters knocking on doors in the Houston area and ordering residents to evacuate. Officials said people should ask for credentials and badges if approached by anyone who claims they're from the organization.

In addition to the city's relief efforts, officials added in their statement that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is "not conducting immigration enforcement operations in the affected area."

As of late Tuesday night, the death toll stood at 18, officials said. Federal and local agencies said they'd rescued more than 13,000 people from the floodwaters and more shelters would open.

The NRG Center will become the next major shelter and was expected to open by 10 p.m. Houston time, the Houston Chronicle and KTRK-TV reported. The center will hold up to 10,000 evacuees, according to KHOU.

The National Hurricane Center reported Tuesday night that Harvey was 85 miles south of Port Arthur, Texas, 85 miles south of Cameron, La., and was moving east at 6 mph.

Earlier Tuesday, President Trump arrived in Texas, meeting with Gov. Greg Abbott in Corpus Christi but staying out of Houston to avoid adding to the chaos there. Trump lauded the agencies overseeing rescue and recovery and said he expected the effort will be viewed in the future as "the way to do it."

"This was of epic proportions, no one has ever seen it," Trump said about Harvey's devastating rain.

The president will return to the area on Saturday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday night.

"We are definitely going back to Texas on Saturday and possibly Louisiana on Saturday as well, depending on the weather conditions there," she said. "We'll go back into a different part of the state, to have a chance to see some of the areas we were not able to today."



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The storm remained over the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, already having dumped more than 50 inches of rain in parts of Houston. A National Weather Service gauge near Highlands, Texas, recorded 51.88 inches from Harvey — the highest rainfall total from a tropical storm or hurricane in the contiguous 48 states.

Harvey was likely to dump an additional 6 to 12 inches of rain through Friday over the upper Texas coast and into southwestern Louisiana.

Still, Mayor Turner tried to be optimistic.

"My hope is that once we get past the next 24 hours that the situation in the city of Houston will significantly improve," Turner said.

Emergency responders have conducted more than 3,500 boat and air rescues, and the number kept climbing. Outside help was streaming in. Search-and-rescue crews from Florida, California, Utah and other areas staged at different trouble spots around the city. Walmart was shipping 2,000 kayaks to the area to help stranded residents.

The giant shelter set up at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston was packed with more than 9,000 evacuees — nearly double its planned capacity. Thousands more slept in smaller shelters across the region.

"Last night in Texas, 17,000+ people sought refuge in shelters," the American Red Cross tweeted Tuesday. "We're providing safety & comfort to rescued families."

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Evacuees described turmoil, uncertainty — and relief to have survived.

Surrounded by people taking a smoking break outside the convention center, Danielle Brown hugged her boyfriend, Lorenzo Harps. They arrived Sunday night after being rescued by boat from a ground-level apartment.

“Everything was already flooded,” said Brown, huddled beneath a relatively dry overhang as rain poured down. “We had to move to the top floor, to a neighbor.”

Before moving up, they tried putting electronics, clothes and keepsakes on counters and shelves. The water climbed to 3 feet within hours before businesslike rescuers evacuated them by boat the next day.

The wrath of Harvey was Brown’s first brush with a tropical storm or hurricane. Her message to the untold numbers of residents experiencing a similar crisis: “Be prepared. Be cautious,” she said. “Grab only what you need. Grab your life.”

Turner, at a news conference, said two or three more city shelters would open soon. And he again addressed criticism leveled at city officials for declining to call for an evacuation in advance of the storm.

“You cannot evacuate 6.5 million people within two days,” he said. “You cannot. That would be chaotic. ... You would be putting people more in harm’s way.”

Police Chief Art Acevedo confirmed the death of one police officer who was trapped in his flooded patrol car late Sunday or early Monday while attempting to get to work. Acevedo called Sgt. Steve Perez, a 34-year police veteran, a "sweet, gentle public servant."

Authorities said it could be days before the full extent of the storm is known.

“We know in these kind of events that, sadly, the death toll goes up,” Acevedo told the Associated Press earlier Tuesday. “I’m really worried about how many bodies we’re going to find" when the water recedes.

Acevedo also said police had arrested a group of four armed "hijackers" and three looters. He issued a warning to would-be offenders.

"Word to the wise — don't come to Houston because you are going to be caught," he said. He promised swift arrest and a push for tough prosecutions and sentences for criminals who "take advantage of people and prey on them in these circumstances. That is despicable behavior."

The governor said the focus remained on saving lives, but the recovery effort across the region would begin soon.

"We will rebuild and make it better than ever," Abbot said.

Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, and The (Lafayette, La.) Daily Advertiser.