As if swamped homes and automobiles, streets that have become rushing rivers and the potential of up to 50 inches of rain over the next week aren’t nightmarish enough for Texans along the Hurricane Harvey-battered Gulf Coast, the storm is dredging up some creatures — alligators, snakes and fire ants, to name a few — they would rather remain hidden in the city’s bayous.
But these reptiles and insects are just like humans and are trying to survive an unprecedented flood event by crawling, slithering and, in the case of the fire ants, forming a living flotilla to reach higher ground. Houston emergency officials warned residents to stay out of the rising swamp because of the potentially deadly hazards lurking unseen in the dirty water.