Running Head: HURRICANE HARVEY

Hurricane Harvey

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Hurricane Harvey

Introduction

Hurricane Harvey started on 17th August 2017 as a slow-moving tropical storm in the

Mexican Gulf. It had initially originated from a tropical wave off the African west coast on 13th

August. The Harvey Tropical Storm hit the Windward Island on 18th August then grew quite

weak to form a tropical wave on 19th August. Tropical Depression Harvey transformed on 23rd

August and developed into a Category 1 hurricane with 80-mph winds on 24th August. Tropical

Depression Harvey gained more strength as it stirred toward Texas. The National Hurricane

Center exalted the storm to a Category 4 hurricane with unrelenting winds up to 130 mph on

25th August (World vision, 2018).

The storm that hit Texas on August 25, 2017, was Hurricane Harvey that was Category 4

storm. Two feet of rain fell in the first 24 hours. Harvey made landfall three times in six days.

Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc on the coast of Texas. The Harvey dumped more than 50

inches of rain in some regions of the Houston area, submerging thousands of households and

killing over 80 people. At its highest level on September 1, 2017, one-third of Houston was

submerged. The total rainfall in Texas reached 60.5 inches which were a record for a single

storm in the United States. The floods covered southeast of Texas in size similar to the

geographical scope of the New Jersey state. Thirty inches of rain fell on the region near the coast

which compares to the size of the state of Maryland. A foot and a half of water covered about

70% of the 1,800-square-mile Texas County. The earth`s crust was depressed by the sheer

weight of the water which made Houston sink by 2 cm (Amadeo, 2019). On 23rd August,

Tropical Storm Harvey downgraded to a tropical depression but went on to cause massive
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amounts of rain on parts of eastern Texas. The figure 1 below shows the Category 4 of Hurricane

Harvey.

Figure 1 Source: (World Vision, 2018)

Causes

Hot oceans resulting from global warming powered Hurricane Harvey. Climate scientists

speculations are that global warming can intensify climate change. With this, they refer to a

warmer atmosphere which carries more water vapor that worsens rainstorms and raise the

temperatures of the ocean surface, thus intensifying hurricanes (Waldman, 2017). Hurricanes

feed off of warmer ocean water. Storms form when oceans are about 80°F. With this kind of hot

pools and strong winds, moisture evaporates rapidly from the sea. The water vapor enters into
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the storm. Vaporized water provides the energy to power the storm as it condenses and falls out

of the hurricane as rain.

As a massive hurricane passes over warm water, it sucks in heat from both the top layer

of water and from deep in the ocean, approximately 160 meters or more. Principally, when a

hurricane passes over warm waters, the sea “sweats” and cools off through a process supported

by the strong winds. Figure 2 below shows how the evaporation and condensation process takes

place.

Figure 2 Source (Abraham, 2018)

The hurricane rapidly grew from category one to category four because it passed over an

area of exceedingly warm ocean water referred to an eddy. This region of hot water was 10-20

Fahrenheit more humid than the Mexican Gulf which itself was 10-20 Fahrenheit hotter than

average, reaching at most 860 in areas which caused the warm water to drive more energy into

the storm (Abraham, 2018). The famous Hurricane Katrina, which led to the destruction of New
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Orleans in 2005, also bourgeoned to Category 4 in a parallel way because it also passed over a

warm eddy in the Gulf (Fischetti, 2017).

Impacts

Hurricane Harvey caused damage of an estimated value of $ 125 billion. The hurricane

affected an estimated 13 million people whereby approximately 135,000 homes were destroyed

in the historic flooding leaving many people homeless. The storm also damaged some of the

Texas infrastructures including the drainage system and electric power connectivity. Up to a

million vehicles were wrecked while the death toll stood at 88. Many of the schools in the region

remained closed more than one month pending repairs from the flooding hence paralyzing

education. The storm flooded 800 wastewater treatment facilities and 13 Superfund sites. The

floods had an impact of spreading toxic chemicals and sewage into the flooded areas (World

Vision, 2018). Figure 3 below shows how Harvey affected pipelines and refineries.

Figure 3 Source (Dottle et al. 2017)

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Over 738,000 people registered for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management

Agency which made a payment of around $378 million in direct payments. Immediately after the

storm, the Federal Emergency Management Agency also delivered 80 tractor-trailer loads of

emergency supplies that included blankets, meals, and cots (Amadeo, 2019).

The impact of Hurricane Harvey in Texas spread across the country and affected the gas

prices. The storm forced 25 percent of oil and gas production to shut down in the region, which

impacted 5 % of national output. About one month after the Harvey, it was reported that refinery

activities in the area remained at low levels and the low supplies drove the US financial market

price of petrol up by 4% to a two-year high (Dottle et al.,2017 ).

Response to Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey propelled the most strong catastrophe reaction in the history of Texas

State. The destruction caused by the hurricane called for a more reactive response to the disaster.

All levels of nonprofit organizations, governments, and the community collaborated to protect

lives and fulfill the wants of thousands of victims. Typically, the response was Texans assisting

Texans with the help of people from other parts of the nation. Although the response was mainly

reactive, there were some proactive measures in place. For instance, the Federal Emergency

Management Agency (FEMA) stationed provisions and workforce in the Texas Division of

Emergency Management before the storm occurred (Sebastian et al., 2017). The FEMA’s move

to preposition supplies and staff at Texas aimed at preparing the agency to join the charitable and

faith-based societies and the local agencies in facing the devastations triggered by a potential

storm. Among the several reactive approaches used were deployment of urban search and rescue

(USAR) teams, provision of medical personnel and supplies, provision of housing by the
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Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and power restoration by the

Department of Energy (DOE).

Twenty-eight USAR teams from all over the country were stationed by FEMA at Texas

to help the local organizations with the lifesaving project. The USAR teams succeeded in

rescuing 6,453 people and 237 animals by use of large automobiles and boats (Sebastian et al.,

2017). The US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Parks Service, Department of Defense, and

the Customs and Border Patrol worked alongside the USAR teams to facilitate the search and

rescue efforts.

Besides, about 5,359 victims received medical care provided by medical personnel. The

provision of medical care was made necessary by the Department of Health and Human Services

which allocated over 1,110 staff equipped with health supplies and equipment in Texas

(Sebastian et al., 2017). The department also facilitated shelter assessment across Texas whereby

60 shelters were assessed. The process of shelter assessment helped move residents of the

flooded Port Arthur to temporary accommodations at Bob Bowers Civic Center.

To assess damage and identify safe unoccupied shelters for the survivors, HUD contacted

61 public housing authorities in Texas. Also, HUD tested the region neighboring the tragedy to

identify accessible public accommodation and multifamily housing units. Lastly, DOE assisted

the Texas Division of Emergency Management restores power to over 300,000 affected locals.

Utility companies responded by assigning over 100,000 from about 21 states across the US to

assist in the power recovery effort (Sebastian et al., 2017). The department collaborated with the

Environmental Protection Agency to avail waivers allowing gasoline to go into the distribution

pipeline.
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Recovery

Since the hurricane Harvey disaster, the majority of the communities in the state have

moved on and recovered substantially while still preparing for the next possible storm. Congress

has been at the forefront of funding the survivors to uplift their living conditions. However,

Congress has not managed to implement efforts that are long lasting which has left the locals

without adequate resources to shift to cost-effective mitigation before the next storm. Therefore,

the resiliency of Texas State has not been a smooth experience.

After the occurrence of the hurricane Harvey, the state Senate approved various bills that

would address the issues that resulted from the storm. The laws encourage the formulation of

disaster recovery strategies and development of an infrastructure resiliency fund and require the

state to update its mapping techniques and a state flood plan after every five years. Senate Bill 6

calls for training and creation of a guide for local officials to undertake the after-storm

precautions. Senate Bill 7, on the other hand, establishes the Texas Infrastructure Resiliency

Fund that caters for expenses incurred by Hurricane Harvey (Senate – Judiciary, 2019). These

bills are just a few among the legislation passed to prepare the state is facing a future natural

disaster.

Despite some communities recovering from the disaster, surveys report that about 15% of

the thousands of the damaged houses are still unlivable up-to-date. Also, 8% of the affected

locals are yet to return to their homes (Sebastian et al., 2017). The storm affected the health and

financial condition of the Texans making them unable to re-establish their homes.

Suggestions
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One of the significant ways to enhance the recovery of the state from a similar calamity is

to reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The program has run for over 50 years

and experienced a debt of about $20 billion (Tompkins et al., 2018). The lawmakers have kept

the program from lapsing by passing seven short term extensions. The main problem with this

program is that it leaves a lot of property uninsured. For instance, after the last storm, more than

80% of the household affected lacked flood insurance (Sebastian et al., 2017). Therefore,

Congress should reform the program in a way that it requires every owner to disclose flood risk

during the selling or to rent of the property. Doing so will elevate the risk of failing to rebuild in

case of a disaster as an insurance policy will cover each property owner.

Congress has to review and reform any old federal program and policy to ease the burden

of the taxpayers who foot the cost of flood rescue and check uncontrolled expansion in areas of

high threat. The frequent occurrence of extreme weather necessitates the Congress to undertake

measures that will discourse the issue of flood risk. Some of these actions include the likes of

remodeling the NFIP, developing a revolving loan fund, and consolidating federal safeguards.
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References
Abraham, J. (2018, May 24). Global warming made Hurricane Harvey more destructive | John

Abraham. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-

97-per-cent/2018/may/23/global-warming-made-hurricane-harvey-more-destructive

Amadeo, K. (2017, September 5). Hurricane Harvey Shows How Climate Change Can Impact

the Economy. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/hurricane-harvey-facts-

damage-costs-4150087

BBC. (2017, August 30). Four key effects of Houston floods. Retrieved from

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41083210

Dottle, R., King, R., & Koeze, E. (2017, September 2). Hurricane Harvey’s Impact ? And How It

Compares To Other Storms. Retrieved from

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/hurricane-harveys-impact-and-how-it-compares-to-

other-storms/

Fischetti, M. (2017, August 28). Hurricane Harvey: Why Is It So Extreme? Retrieved from

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hurricane-harvey-why-is-it-so-extreme/

Forbes Tompkins, F., & Matthew Fuchs, M. (2018). A Year After Hurricane Harvey, Congress

Still Hasn't Improved U.S. Flood Policy. Retrieved from

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/08/24/a-year-after-

hurricane-harvey-congress-still-hasnt-improved-us-flood-policy
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Sebastian, A., Lendering, K. T., Kothuis, B. L. M., Brand, A. D., Jonkman, S. N., van Gelder, P.

H. A. J. M., & Meesters, K. J. M. G. (2017). Hurricane Harvey Report: A fact-finding

effort in the direct aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in the Greater Houston Region.

Senate - Judiciary. (2019). S.7 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Extreme Risk Protection Order

and Violence Prevention Act of 2019. Retrieved from

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/7

Waldman, S. (2017, December 14). Global Warming Tied to Hurricane Harvey. Retrieved from

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/global-warming-tied-to-hurricane-harvey/

World Vision. (2018, December 8). 2017 Hurricane Harvey: Facts, FAQs, and how to help.

Retrieved from https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/hurricane-

harvey-facts