Harvey turns Beaumont into an island

Barry Miller talks about the water purification process at the Beaumont water plant on Pine Street Tuesday. Photo taken Tuesday, January 14, 2014 Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter Barry Miller talks about the water purification process at the Beaumont water plant on Pine Street Tuesday. Photo taken Tuesday, January 14, 2014 Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor Image 1 of / 179 Caption Close Harvey turns Beaumont into an island 1 / 179 Back to Gallery

BEAUMONT--Surrounded by water after Tropical Storm Harvey dumped almost three feet of rain in a day, Beaumont's 120,000 residents woke up Thursday with no running water and dubious prospects for its quick restoration.

"Beaumont is basically an island," Mayor Becky Ames said, referring to one of the worst disasters created by Harvey.

Pumps at both sources of water for the city's treatment plant - the Neches River and wells in Hardin County to the north - became inoperable after they were covered by water from rising floodwaters shortly after midnight Thursday, officials said.

Although they were working on setting up another pumping station, officials would not offer a time line for the return of water service or the establishment of water distribution sites around the city.

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City Manager Kyle Hayes said crews wouldn't be able to get a look at the pumps and determine if they were damaged until the Neches recedes on Monday or Tuesday. The river is expected to crest in Beaumont at 18.4 feet on Saturday.

Residents were left scrambling for water at a handful of stores that were open with few options for getting out of town.

Nearly 350 Texas roadways are flooded, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, and officials were begging people to stay off the roads.

Beaumont received historically high rainfall over the past five days, with as much as 45 inches on the west side, according to Jefferson County Drainage District No. 6.

Heavy rainfall caused the Neches to overflow its banks and swamp the main pump station, which provides 70 percent of the city's water, shortly after midnight.

Shelters across Southeast Texas, already overpopulated and under-supplied, started planning to relocate flood victims to shelters in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio, according to people staying at the Beaumont Civic Center.

Beaumont resident Joe Freddie, who has been at the civic center for three days, said he would welcome the move.

"I'd definitely rather be somewhere with water," Freddie said.

The Southeast Texas death toll from Harvey rose to six on Thursday. A woman died after being pulled from rushing waters with her 3-year-old daughter clinging to her side on Tuesday. A second woman, who was found on the city's low-lying North End early Wednesday, has not been identified.

Beaumont police announced a third flooding-related fatality on Thursday morning but would release no details.

Outside Beaumont, a third person was reported dead after her car was swept Texas 87 south of Newton. On Tuesday night, two people were killed in Jasper County when a tree fell on their truck.

On Thursday, conditions seemed to worsen. Residents left their homes on the first sunny day in many to stand in Great Depression-era style lines in a desperate quest for water. And Baptist Hospital evacuated its 193 patients,

Ann Patterson got in line at Wal-Mart about 5 am., only to be turned away. She later stood in line at a Dollar General to get paper plates and plastic cups.

Hundreds of cars snaked along both directions of Martin Luther King Parkway hoping to make it into the turnaround by the Southeast Texas Food Bank, where volunteers were loading 1,800 cases of water into cars.

Donald Stagg, director of operations, said the magnitude of the crisis was visible from the line.

"At two cases per car, we're able to help 900 families," Staff said.

Swagatika Patra, a recent Lamar University graduate, could see the line from her apartment building and came over to volunteer.

"At first there was an excess of water," Patra said of the flooding. "But now there's not enough."