Port Arthur mayor: 'Our whole city is underwater'

Residents of Port Arthur posted urgent pleas for rescue on social media Wednesday as the Texas city struggled to function after days of hammering rains from Tropical Storm Harvey that forced closure of the nation's largest oil refinery there.

The city was slammed by more than two feet of rain in 24 hours, flooding the civic center that had been serving as a shelter for more than 100 flood victims. A community center then was set up for evacuees.

"Our whole city is underwater right now but we are coming!" Mayor Derrick Freeman, whose own home was swamped in three feet of water, said in a Facebook post. "If you called, we are coming. Please get to higher ground if you can, but please try [to] stay out of attics."

Freeman sounded a common theme across the region, imploring volunteers with boats to aid rescues. "We need it," he said.

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Water flowed like rivers in streets. At the Gulf Health nursing home, about a dozen boats were lined up outside in chest-deep water.

Professional rescuers, along with fisherman and volunteers in camouflage, worked together to remove residents, many of whom were bedridden or in wheelchairs. Video from the scene showed some residents in their beds, water up to their mattresses.

Rescue efforts at one point were slowed by an apartment fire that forced first-responders to evacuate residents of the complex. Lightning also caused delays, Freeman said.

"My best friend and her family are stuck," tweeted one woman; another tweeted that her grandfather needed a rescue. Both tweets included addresses for emergency personnel or volunteers with boats.

Another woman, interviewed on CNN, said she was trapped in her attic. 

Harvey, which roared into the Texas coast Friday night as a full-blown hurricane, has lingered in the area since. The storm made landfall a second time early Wednesday in Louisiana, about 50 miles east of Port Arthur.

Freeman said the Coast Guard had helicopters and boats deployed around the city and the National Guard wass operating out of the local Walmart parking lot.

"We have city dump trucks, fire rescue boats and several other assets around the city making rescues," Freeman said in a Facebook post Wednesday afternoon. "Continue to call 911 if you are unsafe. We're coming y'all."

The Saudi-owned Motiva refinery in Port Arthur began "a controlled shutdown" at 5 a.m. CT Wednesday because of the storm.

"Return to service is contingent upon recession of floodwaters in the area," Motiva said in a statement. "Our priority remains the safety of our employees and the community."