Texas prepares for 'catastrophic' flooding as Hurricane Harvey bears down on coast
GALVESTON, Texas _ Along the southern edge of this island city on the Texas Gulf Coast, two surfers paddled out to ride the waves that raged furiously toward the beach.
They weren't alone. On the shore, a huddle of young men moseyed around, barefoot, hoping to skimboard when the floods hit along one of the main roads along Galveston's Gulf of Mexico shoreline.
"Danger is not a factor in these parts," William Mead, 21, of Clear Lake, Texas, said smiling as his shirt whipped in the pummeling winds.
Residents along a vast swath of the Texas coast were bracing for up to a year's worth of rain as Hurricane Harvey strengthened into a Category 4 storm with sustained 130-mph winds and lashing rain. Forecasters said it could be the first major hurricane to hit the mainland United States in 12 years.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott requested a federal disaster declaration in advance of the worst of the storm, which he warned was expected to be
