Six of Texas' on-shore oil refineries, representing about 500,000 barrels a day, are offline following Hurricane Harvey's landfall, with offshore rigs evacuated voluntarily, and regional dams in the Houston dams remain a concern, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said Monday.
"We have emergency response teams on the ground," Zinke told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "We have emergency rescue teams as well as we have U.S. Geological Survey on the ground, monitoring the floods."
Zinke did not comment about what the oil production losses could mean to the nation's gas prices. According to the Financial Times, about 17 percent of the nation's crude oil output comes from the Gulf of Mexico, with over 45 percent of the nation's oil refining capacity set along the Gulf Coast.
The Interior secretary noted that many of the oil rigs in the gulf were under voluntary evacuation orders as the storms rolled in.
Meanwhile, early Monday, more water was released from Houston's reservoirs, with officials moving to protect the nation's fourth-largest city's downtown from devastating flooding, making a move that could endanger thousands of homes.
Residents near the reservoirs were warned on Sunday about the controlled release, which also was deemed necessary, because of rising water levels and relentless rain that could have caused the dams to fail.
"Right now, of course, we don't want a catastrophic break," said Zinke. "We have seen what happens recently in California. It's a concern. I think the points of communication is that if you are going to release water, make sure that's communicated to the areas affected."
Zinke noted that a cabinet meeting was held on Sunday with President Donald Trump on the line from Camp David.
"It's amazing to see the Cabinet, under the Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly, this is very much like a military operation by the numbers, making sure the assets are surged forward, making sure we have communication with our assets, and making sure all the secretaries are engaged." said Zinke.
Rescue operations also are moving forward, said Zinke, and show the effects of prior planning.
"[With] the Department of Interior, we have swift water rescue teams," Zinke, a former congressman and Navy SEAL. "We have wildlife refuges there; we have national park assets, and we have people that do this every day."
Sheltering 30,000 or more people will be a "big lift," Zinke said.
"We have made well over a thousand rescues, you know, and there is probably going to be another thousand as the waters rise. A lot of it is getting your cues from the local authorities. For us on the federal government side, we're supporting the governor . . . all of us are working together and we have great people out there working hard every day."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.