The hurricane, which is the most serious storm to make landfall in the U.S. since Hurricane Wilma in 2005, combined rapid intensification with a deluge of rainfall that is expected to make it a catastrophic event for Texas. Harvey’s eye came ashore late Friday near Rockport, Texas, about 35 miles northeast of Corpus Christi.

The storm began gathering strength as it approached the Texas coast Thursday and Friday. At 8 a.m. Eastern Daylight time Thursday, the hurricane’s top winds were 60 mph. By 8 a.m. Friday, Harvey’s top winds had exploded to 110 mph. And by 2 p.m. Eastern time its top winds had reached 120 mph. That threshold made Harvey a Category 3 major hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, meaning