CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—Hurricane Harvey intensified on Friday into potentially the most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in more than a decade, as authorities warned locals to shelter from what could be life-threatening winds and floods.
Harvey was set to make landfall late on Friday or early on Saturday in the middle Texas coast, slamming into Corpus Christi first and potentially looping back over the Gulf of Mexico before hitting Houston, some models showed.
Some of the biggest U.S. crude refineries are in the storm’s projected path. Oil and gas operations have already been disrupted and U.S. gasoline prices have spiked.
Residents and emergency vehicles were streaming out of Corpus Christie, heading inland to emergency shelters or ferrying patients to safety under roiling skies and bright orange flares from the city’s refineries, all of which had halted production.
Gas stations and grocery stores all along the south Texas coast were packed as residents readied their cars and pantries for any shortages following the storm.
At a Mathis, Texas, station, about 36 miles (59 km) northwest of Corpus Christi, an impatient driver leaned on his horn. “Come on,” the man shouted.
Harvey strengthened into a category 2 storm with winds of 110 mph (177 kph) as it moved northwest about 140 miles (225 km) off Corpus Christi, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It projected windspeeds to reach 120 mph just before landfall.
The NHC expects Harvey to move slowly and linger over Texas for days. Its latest tracking model shows the storm moving back along the Texas coast early next week after sitting west of Houston, giving the nation’s fourth most populous city a double dose of rain and wind.
