Houston Mayor has 'no regrets' over decision not to evacuate residents ahead of Hurricane Harvey
The Mayor of Houston said he has "no regrets" over his decision not to evacuate residents before Hurricane Harvey made landfall.
Sylvester Turner told reporters the decision "was a smart one".
The hurricane made landfall on Friday, and has deluged America's fourth-largest city with devastating floods since being downgraded to a tropical storm.
Thousands of residents have been forced onto rooftops, overwhelming rescuers with constant calls for help.
Video report by ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday night, Mr Turner said the decision was influenced by not knowing which direction the storm was going to head in and the logistics of trying to plan an evacuation of 2.3 million people within a couple of days.
He also cited the experience the city had in 2005 when roads became gridlocked as residents were evacuated ahead of Hurricane Rita, leaving many people in traffic for more than 20 hours resulting in dozens of deaths.
"There was a lot of conversation about the direction in which Hurricane Harvey was going to go," said Mr Turner.
"No one knew which direction it was going to go, so it's kind of difficult to send people away from danger when you don't know where the danger is."
He added: "To try to put forth some sort of evacuation in a couple of days was...I mean, the logistics would've been crazy, OK? Because if we can remember the last time we evacuated, there was a great deal of confusion, a great deal of chaos."
"The decision that we made was a smart one. It was in the best interest of Houstonians. It was the right decision in terms of their safety and always we must put the interests of the city and Houstonians first.
Meanwhile there appeared to be some confusion over the number of fatalities.
"I have only one confirmed fatality, although, I think there are about three," said Mr Turner.
"Of course one took place with a woman who drove into high-water at Werrington and South Gaston in southwest Houston and then drowned while trying to escape.
"She was discovered by 9:10 a.m. Am told of one case where someone in their home may have maybe suffered from a cardiac arrest but that has yet to fully be confirmed. And then there was another death that I think took place in an elevator shaft."