Steve Gonzales | Houston Chronicle | AP
A customer fills his vehicle and five gas cans at Costco in preparation for tropical weather on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, in Pearland, Texas.
In anticipation of Harvey’s landfall, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster Wednesday for 30 counties and ordered state resources to be made available for rescue and recovery. Thursday evening, he posted a video message to Twitter, urging consumers to “take all necessary precautions to save your life and minimize risk.”
“I strongly urge all Texans to heed warnings from your local officials, and I also urge that you immediately follow evacuation orders for all impacted counties,” he said
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Travelers whose plans take them to, from or through an area in the path of the storm should start checking to see how easily and cheaply they can shift plans. (See tips below.)
Major airlines — including American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United — have issued travel advisories for the affected areas and are waiving change fees for travelers to reschedule flights. By midday Friday, according to FlightAware.com, airlines had canceled more than 150 flights due to Hurricane Harvey, and preemptively canceled more than 180 for Saturday.
Now that Harvey is a named storm, it’s too late to pick up travel insurance for your trip. If you already have a policy in place, check to see if its protections have kicked in (depending on your coverage, they may not have yet).