Tanker grounded by post-hurricane high winds in Texas

Remnants of Hurricane Patricia, the strongest storm known to slam into the Western Hemisphere, moved up from Mexico to the Gulf Coast and central Texas in the south of the United States, and grounded a seven-year-old U.S. tanker barge on Saturday.

Six people were reportedly aboard or on its accompanying tug boat but no injuries have been reported, and the tanker barge is now empty. The Marine Safety Unit is monitoring the crew's safety and the ship's rescue plans, according to the local TV station ABC 13.

Two tug boat crew members are waiting in the windy Texas Gulf Coast area for calmer weather before attempting to haul this empty 327-ton U.S. tanker barge off the rocks. The tanker was blown onto a shallow-water jetty 200 yards (182 meters) from Galveston Bay beach south of Houston, Taxas, by winds of 64 kph, despite being anchored.

The tanker and its accompanying tug boat were both anchored to wait for the wind to calm, yet the wind drifted the tanker barge until it was stuck on the jetty between the beach and channel inlet.

Weather reports stated Sunday night that the heavy rains that followed the northward path of the downgraded hurricane have moved to the east of the Houston and Galveston areas in the southeast of Taxas.

One man, Stephen Konvicka, awoke along Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston to find the sidewalk covered by water inching up from his ankles before being rescued by the Houston Fire Department.

On Sunday, city infrastructure employees began working to clean up sewage that spilled into downtown streets because of the flooding.

Houston and Galveston are not the only cities in Texas to withstand damage from the aftermath of Hurricane Patricia.

On Saturday morning, a Union Pacific freight train derailed, leaving a locomotive and rail cars carrying concrete on their sides, after slamming into flooded tracks south of Dallas in the northeast of Taxas. Endi