The Central Texas Coast is preparing to absorb Hurricane Harvey, which could make landfall just north of Corpus Christi early tomorrow morning as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of more than 110 mph, a storm surge topping 12 feet and 18 to 30 inches of rain all the way up to Houston. Various forecast models call for the storm to linger along the coast throughout the weekend and produce catastrophic flooding. Thunderstorms, winds and heavy rain are expected with the storm in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, as well as Gulf of Mexico routing, was expected to be significantly impacted. 

At midday today, the Corpus Christi International Airport (CRP) remained open, but with the tower unmanned. The wind was sustained at 23 knots and gusting to 32. FBO Signature Flight Support ceased operations at 11 p.m. Thursday. Plans called for the airport to close once the winds hit 50 knots, but most aircraft on the field had already departed. At Galveston's Scholes International Airport, line technician supervisor Joe Varela at Galveston Aviation Services said he had just fueled the last two departing aircraft on the field shortly before noon local time. Winds on the field were gusting to 27 knots with light rain reported. “Right now I'm the only one here. I think we're going to shut down around 5 or 6 [p.m.],” he said. “There's no aircraft on the field” except for those in hangars. Varela said most based aircraft evacuated to either Baytown (KHPY), northwest of Houston, or Pearland Regional (KLVJ), on Houston's south side.

Helicopter services firm Bristow Group closed its Houston headquarters early today, to give its employees time to prepare for the anticipated local flooding. The company has activated its continuity plan to maintain and support global operations. It had worked with its Gulf of Mexico clients earlier in the week to de-man their offshore energy rigs in the impact zone.

Also earlier this week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) established a forward incident support base at Randolph Auxiliary Airfield near Seguin, Texas, to pre-position supplies, including water, meals, blankets and other resources closer to the potentially affected areas, should they be needed and requested by the state. State, local and tribal officials would then be responsible for distributing any supplies to their communities. Additionally, FEMA regional incident management assistance teams (IMAT) are in place at emergency operations centers in Austin, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to support any requests for federal assistance.

Yesterday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott mobilized 700 members with the Texas Army and Air National Guards and Texas State Guard with the Texas Military Department ahead of the storm. Additional personnel remain on standby to respond as needed. UH-60 Black Hawk and UH-72 Lakota helicopter crews are pre-positioned in Austin and San Antonio for the purpose of assisting with any emergency search and rescue, swift water rescues and/or emergency evacuations.

This morning, Helicopter Association International (HAI) president Matt Zuccaro noted that the civilian helicopter community is gearing up to help in Harvey's aftermath, much as it did after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, augmenting parapublic lift. Zuccaro said HAI maintains an emergency response helicopter database of available operators. “All they need to do is ask. We're ready to work with FEMA and offices in Texas to support whatever they might require after the storm.”