Tropical storm Harvey: number of confirmed deaths rises to 23 – live

A woman’s body was discovered as Harvey’s floodwaters started dropping, while Texas says more than 48,700 homes have been affectedLatest news: hundreds feared cut off by floods as Harvey pushes east‘We ain’t doing no damn good’: volunteer rescuers struggle in HoustonGet involved: how to help people affected by Harvey 2.57am BST Joel Osteen, pastor of Houston’s Lakewood church, has been responding to criticism that his megachurch was slow to offer its huge building to those fleeing the flooding.Osteen told Fox News that the church is now being used as a distribution centre for the city for supplies, and being stocked with air mattresses for evacuees:The church doors have always been open. We took people in as soon as the waters receded.There’s a big shelter just down the street, maybe four miles, where they have thousands and thousands of people – but they’ve always been open, this is what Lakewood is all about.They don’t realise that the church was flooded … it’s a safety issue … This is a huge storm, you don’t have staff here, just a whole lot of things going on that people don’t really see …Social media is powerful these days and I think some of it is just people who don’t like people like me or people of faith. 2.32am BST Images of flooded streets in Texas are mirrored by scenes of inundated communities in India and Bangladesh, the recent mudslides in Sierra Leone and last month’s deadly overflow of a Yangtze tributary in China. In part, these calamities are seasonal. In part, the impact depends on local factors. But scientists tell us such extremes are likely to become more common and more devastating as a result of rising global temperatures and increasingly intense rainfall.Our planet is in an era of unwelcome records. For each of the past three years, temperatures have hit peaks not seen since the birth of meteorology, and probably not for more than 110,000 years. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air is at its highest level in 4m years. Related: In an era of unwelcome climate records Hurricane Harvey won’t be the last Continue reading…
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