Hurricane Harvey: Massive sinkhole opens up on Texas motorway after flooding

‘Pack up what you need and put it in your vehicle and when the sun comes up, get out,’ said meteorologist Jeff Lindner

A massive sinkhole has opened up on a Texas motorway after the road collapsed due to extreme flooding from Hurricane Harvey.

Police in Rosenberg, a city about 25 miles southwest of Houston, warned residents to steer clear of the road.

“AVOID THE AREA!” they tweeted, posting a photo of the gaping hole that spread across more than half of the two-lane highway, which has been blocked off by police vehicles.

Water could be seen filling the sinkhole as pieces of asphalt hung from its edges.

“It’s dangerous,” Rosenberg Assistant Police Chief Tracie Dunn told the Houston Chronicle. “[Residents] don’t need to get anywhere near it... They just need to stay away.”

Police also warned of a second road being at risk of collapsing.

They ordered a mandatory evacuation for residents living on Huntington Road after concerns that the bridge into the area may not hold as river levels continue to rise. The bridge is the “only way out” of the area, they warned.

The area’s county judge Robert Herbert said at a news conference that National Weather Service officials were predicting water levels could rise as high as 59 feet, three feet above 2016 records and, which Mr Herbert called an “800-year flood level”.

The judge also warned that the amount of water would top local levees, carrying a threat of levee failure.

At least five people have died in the disaster, while thousands of others have been forced to climb to their rooftops to escape widespread flooding, with many still awaiting rescue from emergency services.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that 18 counties have been declared “federal disaster areas” in the wake of the storm and its aftermath, while 50 counties have been marked as “state disaster zones”.

Officials from Harris and Fort Bend counties, which include Houston and Rosenberg respectively, warned residents on Sunday to be prepared for an influx of flooding expected in the early hours of Monday morning. They recommended that people pack their cars on Sunday evening and wait for daylight on Monday to leave the area.

“The idea is to prepare... pack up what you need and put it in your vehicle and when the sun comes up, get out,” said Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District. “And you don’t have to go far, you just need to get out of this area.”

Additional reporting by AP