The Latest: 2nd major shelter for Harvey evacuees opens

AP Photo/David J. Phillip

HOUSTON (AP) — The Latest on Tropical Storm Harvey (all times local):

12:50 a.m.

A second major shelter has opened in Houston following Harvey’s landfall and it’s welcoming the first of up to 10,000 evacuees.

At least 10 buses pulled up to the NRG Center on the south side of the city just before midnight Tuesday. Those in wheelchairs entered first, followed by the first of what officials said could be up to 2,000 people by sunrise Wednesday at the conference hall adjacent to the decommissioned Astrodome and the city’s NFL stadium.

The George R. Brown Convention Center downtown has filled to nearly double its originally announced capacity of 5,000 in the five days since the storm first made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.

The evacuees brought to NRG Center came from other parts of the metro area.

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12:30 a.m.

Photos with pleas for help in finding the missing from Tropical Storm Harvey are being posted and retweeted by the thousands as desperate family members seek loved ones who they fear might be dead, but may only have a dead phone.

No official number of missing has been released Tuesday night, but dozens of missing-person photos are circulating on social media. Some are getting results, though not always positive ones.

The family of Ruben Jordan, a 58-year-old retired football and track coach from a Houston-area high school, spread pleas on Twitter and Facebook for 48 hours before they were told he was found dead Tuesday.

The mother of baby Paige Booth was frantic for four hours after she handed off her baby to a police officer amid chest-high water then couldn’t find her.

After a series of posts, she got a call from a family of strangers that had her baby, and the two were soon reunited.

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11:15 p.m.

The Rockport-Fulton Fighting Pirates won’t take the field Friday for their season opener, but some of their players took to the field Tuesday to help clean it up.

Winds from Harvey last week sheared the uprights from both goal posts, stripped most of the metal from the stadium scoreboards, scattered sheet metal through the stands and destroyed the gymnasium where the girls’ volleyball team plays.

By word of mouth, some football and volleyball players met Monday afternoon to begin the cleanup. Even more players showed up Tuesday.

Athletic director Jay Seibert said that after three weeks of practice and a scrimmage, his players are now scattered all over the state after evacuating the coastal town near Corpus Christi and that the Pirates will not be able to play this week.

Right guard Angelo Trevino said that returning to the field will help the community recovery effort.

Harvey made landfall near Rockport last Friday as a Category 4 hurricane.

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10:45 p.m.

Officials say they have received disturbing reports of people impersonating Homeland Security special agents and telling residents to evacuate in order to rob their homes.

The city of Houston says people should ask anyone knocking on their doors for official badges and credentials with their name and organization. The city’s statement also notes that during Harvey relief efforts, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not conducting immigration enforcement operations in the area.

The city also says in a tweet in both English and Spanish that it is not checking the immigration status of anyone coming into shelters.

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10 p.m.

The death toll from Harvey has risen to at least 18 as three more fatalities have been confirmed in the Houston area.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences updated its storm-related deaths Tuesday night to include an 89-year-old woman, Agnes Stanley, who was found floating in 4 feet (1.2 meters) of floodwater in a home. A 76-year-old woman was found floating in floodwater near a vehicle. Her name was not released. A 45-year-old man, Travis Lynn Callihan, left his vehicle and fell into floodwaters. He was taken to a hospital, where he died Monday.

Family members and authorities have reported at least 18 deaths although the bodies of some victims apparently swept away in the floodwaters have not been found.

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9:30 p.m.

Singapore’s defense ministry says as many as four of its military helicopters will start assisting in Tropical Storm Harvey relief efforts Wednesday.

The CH-47 Chinook helicopters are stationed in Grand Prairie, Texas, as part of a decades-long partnership between the Republic of Singapore Air Force and Texas National Guard. Singaporean airmen who train there learn how to face large-scale emergencies.

The ministry says the helicopters will be able to airlift troops, evacuees and supplies in the relief effort.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made the offer in a call with President Donald Trump late Tuesday. Both leaders are set to meet at the White House in October.

Singapore made a similar offer after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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9:15 p.m.

Houston officials are opening a major shelter at NRG Park that can accommodate up to 10,000 evacuees from Harvey.

Darian Ward, a spokeswoman for Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, said the convention center adjacent to the city’s NFL stadium and the Astrodome will open at 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The new shelter will provide the city with additional capacity because the number of evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center is approaching 10,000, double its original capacity.

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8:40 p.m.

Just 500 cots are being added to the floor of the Toyota Center, as the nearby downtown convention center will remain the primary major shelter for evacuees of Tropical Storm Harvey.

Tom McCasland, Houston’s housing and community development director, told The Associated Press Tuesday that the Toyota Center- where the NBA’s Houston Rockets play – will serve as an overflow center for people still arriving Tuesday night and early Wednesday. It will only serve families with children that don’t have pressing medical needs.

The George R. Brown Convention Center has an estimated 9,000 people seeking shelter. McCasland says more cots are on the way for thousands of people who didn’t have one Monday night. Some people slept on towels or strips of cardboard.

He says, “We fully expect to have everyone in a cot tonight.”

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8:30 p.m.

Federal and local agencies say they have rescued more than 13,000 people in the Houston area as well as in surrounding cities and counties in Southeast Texas since Tropical Storm Harvey inundated the area with torrential rain.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said Tuesday his agency has rescued about 4,100 people.

Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pe