Planet, turbo charging the storm, bringing the wind and fueling this moisture. matt, thank you. they believe the eye of the storm could pass over port lavaca, texas. there are mandatory evacuations there tonight. home to nearly half of the u.s. oil refineries. rob marciano is there. you re seeing the storm surge already? reporter: the wind is picking up, and the water is piling up. this is a bay, but it s rolling in here like the ocean. this entire area of texas, very vulnerable to storm surge. tonight, areas south of houston, scrambling to prep for the northern, more ferocious half of hurricane harvey. we ve got the generator on the back porch, we ve got the house all boarded up, we re riding it out. reporter: you re ready? you betcha. reporter: farther west, closer to the expected landfall, a surge of waves and water churning up matagorda bay,
Okay. so again, the hurricane is that way. it s north of us right now. it s a big hurricane and of course the tropical storm winds are behind us. if you walk up here, i want to just see we don t have a whole lot of light here. it s not working. all right. we re having a little bit of trouble with your mike. we can hear the sounds of the ocean though. no question about that. water churning out there. we ll get back to kerry in just a few minutes. he s trying to put a light on things for us. meantime, hurricane matthew is heading up the east coast now but before that it caused significant damage and massive flooding in the caribbean. in the bahamas, some american tourists are stranded on what
Assumption parrish officials were checking the site of what is now a 25-acre sinkhole south of baton rouge. within seconds they noticed the cypress trees going down. watch this. literally sucked under as the ground below them collapsed. the video shows the entire area suddenly swirling and the water churning as the trees are g gobbled up. the trees, which first appeared last august, is sitting over a dome cav earn. it s belonged the cavern collapsed, thus the sinkhole. they had abandoned and sealed the well in 2011. tremors and bubbling began the next year. at this point experts say it could still nearly double in size. parrish officials say there s no way to fill it and only mother nature can stabilize it. the mining company, texas bryant, is working to eliminating the problem which
Ground below them collapsed. the video shows the entire area suddenly swirling and the water churning as the trees are gobbled up. the sinkhole which first appeared last august sits over a salt dome cavern. it s believe the cavern collapse causing the sinkhole. they say the company mining the salt dome had abandoned and sealed the well in 2011. tremors and bubbles began the next year. at this point the experts say it could still nearly double in size. parrish officials say there s no way to fill it and only mother nature can stabilize it. the mining company texas brine is working to mitigate the problem, which includes natural gas bubbling up. about 150 homes in the area have been evacuated. one resident told our ed lavandera, he thinks all the property around there will be worthless. reporter: are you worried about what it means long term?
Literally sucked under as the ground below them collapsed. the video shows the entire area suddenly swirling and the water churning as the trees are gobbled up. the sinkhole which first appeared last august sits over a salt dome cavern. it s believe the cavern collapse causing the sinkhole. they say the company mining the salt dome had abandoned and sealed the well, but tremors and bubbling began last year. at this point the experts say it could still nearly double in size. parrish officials say there s no way to fill it and only mother nature can stabilize it. the mining company texas brine is working to mitigate the problem which you includes natural gas bubbling up. about 150 homes in the area have been evacuated. one resident told our ed lavandera, he thinks all the property around there will be worthless. reporter: are you worried about what it means long term? yes, yes.