The giant storm adjusts it's course toward Louisiana in time for the 12th anniversary of Katrina
The mayor of Houston has said the flooded city has turned a corner after electricity was restored to much of the area and shelter numbers were beginning to decline as of Thursday night.
Mayor Sylvester Turner declared in a press conference that Houston is "open for business" adding that large areas were "drying out and drying out well" and traffic was returning to the streets.
Flood waters have receded enough for the recovery mission to begin and the death toll is expected to rise past its current count of 39 when most of the water is gone from Houston and Harris County by Friday or early Saturday, according to Daily Mail.
As residents wade through the declining murky waters to salvage what is left of their homes, experts warn that it has "millions of contaminants", including toxic chemicals, sewage, debris and waste.
More than 100,000 homes were destroyed when Harvey slammed into the Lone Star State last Friday night, and some cities are left without water as the storm continues to dump record-setting amounts of rain.
After touring the devastated Texas Gulf Coast on Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence said more than 300,000 people have applied for disaster aid as the region begins to put the pieces of their lives back together.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday night, Turner said he expects to move people from the Toyota Center downtown to the nearby George R. Brown Convention Center on Friday.
The convention center, which once housed 10,000 people at one point, sheltered about 8,000 late Thursday.
Officials were also optimistic about the heavily flooded city, expecting the waters to be gone from most of Houston and Harris County by late Friday or early Saturday.
The city is beginning to recover from the catastrophic storm with just 37,000 left without power, down by Wednesday's number of 75,000. Houston has a customer base of around 2.4 million.
Houston has 'turned a corner', the mayor said. Photo / Getty Images
As residents begin to return to their homes to assess damage, experts are warning people to stay clear of the dirty water, citing its numerous hazards.
Porfirio Villarreal, a spokesman for the Houston Health Department, said to the New York Times: "We're telling people to avoid the floodwater as much as possible.
"Don't let your children play in it. And if you do touch it, wash it off. Remember, this is going to go on for weeks."
Vice President Mike Pence announced that Trump and Melania would be returning to Texas on Saturday, after the president received flack for failing to meet with Hurricane Harvey victims and later claiming he saw wrath of the storm "first hand" when he went on Tuesday.
In his speech on Thursday, Pence commended state and federal officials who aided the relief effort before proclaiming his admiration of citizen volunteers and encouraged all Americans to find a way to help.
The vice president also revealed that more than 300,000 people affected by the storm have already registered for disaster aid and said that Trump's administration expects Congress to "move quickly" in funding legislation.
Texan fire fighters were going door-to-door in a grim search for survivors and victims of Hurricane Harvey as hospitals and homes that were the last to be hit are evacuated on Thursday morning.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said previously that he feared how many bodies his officers would find. His bleak outlook was echoed by Fire Department Chief Terry Garrison at a press conference late on Tuesday night.
As emergency crews switched their efforts from rescue to recovery mode on Thursday, the military faced harsh criticism for how it has handled the catastrophe which has been described as a 1,000-year-flood.
Former Joint Task Force Katrina Commander Russel Honore likened the response to 'amateur hour' and blasted the government for not having a better plan.
Harvey has almost cleared out of Texas and is making its way over Louisiana in the less severe form of a tropical depression.
By Friday night, it will creep up in a northwest diagonal direction over Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, bringing heavy not not life-threatening rain.
But just as the panic seemed to die down on Thursday, sudden floods caused by burst rivers in Beaumont triggered the evacuations of medical centers and the failure of water plants meant that hospitals filled with patients were suddenly not fit for use.
Two hundred patients were removed from the Baptist Beaumont Hospital on Thursday after its water failed.
Elderly patients from the Gulf Medical Center were also transported to other facilities in wheelchairs and on gurneys.
As Houston prepared to face the hurricane's grisly aftermath, there was still imminent danger and panic in other parts of Texas and the Gulf Coast.
In east Texas, the entire city of Beaumont is now without running water.
Residents in some parts of Tyler County, which has a population of around 20,000 which sits to the north of the city, were told to "get out or die" on Wednesday night as rivers overflowed, triggering yet more floods.
People have begun to empty out of shelters in the city, returning home and starting to rebuild their lives. Photo / AP
Anyone who chose to stay behind was told to write their social security number on their arm so that emergency services would later be able to identify their body.
There was also fresh danger in Harris County in Houston after two explosions at a chemical plant.
Fifteen police officers were taken to hospital for treatment after being exposed to the harmful substances which were released from Arkema Inc. Plant as a result of the blasts.
In Houston alone, the fire department has received 15,000 calls for help since Harvey made landfall.
Some areas of the city continue to be at risk as water from the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs is released, causing the flood level in areas nearby to rise.
On Thursday, 40 survivors were rescued from flood water in the city. The emergency services have rescued 3,500 in total since Harvey began.
There was harsh criticism of the military over its response to the tragedy from Honore who said of the northern command - the division tasked with overseeing state.
"Something is significantly wrong with out control and command. There comes a point in time with the mission that it is too big for the state national guard and they need to get the hell over it and bring in the big dogs when you've got a big mission," he said.
In a jibe at President Trump, who has repeatedly congratulated local efforts to address the catastrophe, he went on: "They need to stop patting each other on the back while these poor people are out here waiting to be rescued."
Fire fighters in Houston are working 48 hour shifts to recover victims and police officers for the city are not being allowed to go home until the demand for their time is under control.
