Hurricane Harvey miracle: Toddler found clinging to dead mother

Authorities in Southeast Texas said they found a shivering toddler clinging to her drowned mother in a rain-swollen canal after the woman tried to carry the child to safety from Tropical Storm Harvey.

Capt. Brad Penisson of the fire-rescue department in Beaumont said the woman's vehicle got stuck Tuesday afternoon (US time) in the flooded parking lot of an office park just off Interstate 10.

Squalls from Harvey were pounding Beaumont with up to 5cm of rain an hour at the time with 61km/h gusts, according to the National Weather Service.

Penisson said a witness saw the woman take her 18-month-old daughter and try to walk to safety when the swift current of a flooded drainage canal next to the parking lot swept her and her child away.

The child was holding onto the floating woman when a police and fire-rescue team in a boat caught up to them a half-mile downstream, he said.

Rescuers pulled them into the boat just before they would have gone under a railroad trestle where the water was so high that the boat could not have followed.

First responders lifted the child from her mother's body and tried to revive the woman, but she never regained consciousness.

Penisson said the child was in stable condition at Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital.The identities of mother and child were being withheld until the father, who was out of town, can be notified.

Three boys play baseball on 22nd Street in Beaumont, Texas while three other people return home with supplies during Sunday's stormy weather. Photo / AP

Meanwhile, Western Louisiana residents are bracing for more wind and water as Tropical Storm Harvey heads their way after dumping record rainfall on Texas.

National Weather Service meteorologists say officials expect Harvey will make another landfall near the two states' border early Wednesday, after hitting Texas and meandering back into the Gulf of Mexico.

Forecasters say another 13 to 25cm of rain could fall in western Louisiana.

Meteorologist Roger Erickson warns that some coastal rivers won't be able to drain rains effectively because Harvey's winds are pushing in storm surge, aggravating flooding in areas already drenched by more than 51cm of rain.

Cameron Parish's Office of Emergency Preparedness says a curfew is in effect until the threat has passed.

- AP