National Weather Service: Hurricane Harvey Flooding "Unprecedented" and "Beyond Anything Experienced"

Earlier today, the National Weather Service—an organization not given to hyperbole—tweeted the following about the effects of Hurricane Harvey on the gulf coast:

This event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced. Follow orders from officials to ensure safety. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/IjpWLey1h8
— NWS (@NWS) August 27, 2017

William “Brock” Long, Trump’s very recent appointment as head of FEMA, has already called it “a devastating disaster” and “the worst disaster the state’s seen.”

Harvey has been downgraded to a tropical storm at this point, but the real danger now is the rainfall, which will average 15-25 inches and perhaps go as high as 50 inches in some areas. Obviously, this will aggravate what is already a dangerous flooding situation. Five people have died, at minimum, and more than 1,000 water rescues have been made since last night.

At the moment, the best places to follow for news updates seem to be the Times (this story from a correspondent whose own is being flooded is particularly harrowing), the Washington Post, the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas-Morning News, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And of course, Twitter is a solid source of both news and footage like this, of a local news TV crew organizing a rescue:

National Weather Service: Hurricane Harvey Flooding “Unprecedented” and “Beyond Anything Experienced”