Houston, Texas mayor creates flood relief fund

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is responding to an overwhelming number of corporate and citizen inquiries by establishing the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund to accept tax-deductible flood relief donations.

The fund is administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation.

Turner says he's getting phone calls from across the country and "the generosity of people who understand this disaster is truly amazing."

The foundation will accept donations by a variety of channels:

Checks and money orders can be mailed to the Greater Houston Community Foundation, while online credit card donations can be made at www.ghcf.org. Online credit card donations will be assessed a small fee by the credit card companies. Donors have the option of increasing their credit card donations to cover this fee.

Wire-transferred cash will also be accepted.

Tropical Storm Harvey continues to head back toward the Gulf of Mexico at a slow pace.

In its 10 p.m. CDT advisory, the National Hurricane Center reports the storm still has sustained winds of up to 40 mph (65 kmh) and is centered 20 miles east of Victoria, Texas, about 120 miles (193 km) southwest of Houston. It continues to creep to the east-southeast at 3 mph (6 kmh).

That means it remains virtually stalled near the coast and continues to drop heavy rain on the Houston and Galveston areas. In the past 48 hours, numerous spots in the region have measured more than 25 inches of rainfall.

The hurricane center says Harvey's center was expected to drift off the middle Texas coast on Monday and meander offshore through Tuesday before beginning "a slow northeastward motion."