NEW BEDFORD - Thousands of volunteers have descended upon southeast Texas as now Tropical Storm Harvey continues to dump feet of rain in the Houston area.

Harvey barreled into the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane late last week, and could rival Hurricane Katrina in terms of damage costs once the storm clears.

Major Gil Parkhurst of the New Bedford Salvation Army says volunteers from Salvation Army branches in the southeastern United States have been activated to provide assistance to the area.

"Then as the disaster continues, and those individuals need to be relieved, they'll reach out to other areas," said Parkhurst. "We are on standby, if needed. But as of this point we haven't deployed anybody to that area."

Parkhurst says the New Bedford branch is not yet accepting donations such as food and hygenic supplies as it's not yet known what's needed.

"We're housing it [supplies] at this point until the area is assessed as what can be brought in and what is needed," explained Parkhurst. "But at this point, in-kind donations are not needed."

Parkhurst urges area residents to instead make financial contributions to assist with the Salvation Army's relief efforts. Donations to the Salvation Army can be made by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY, texting "storm" to 51555, or visiting helpsalvationarmy.org.

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