HURRICANE HARVEY THE HORRIBLE
As you’ve probably heard, the Texas coast was hit hard by a Category 4 hurricane called Harvey on the 25th of August. Harvey made landfall in Rockport, Texas, a small coastal city that is a popular tourist destination. Sadly, much of Rockport is heavily damaged now as the winds blew in at 130mph and destroyed much of the area.
Harvey then moved north, stopping by my hometown where he continued to wreak havoc with strong winds and rain. The areas that were hit were left without power and were also under a mandatory water boil for days after the storm passed. Being that Texas is known for heat and humidity, I can imagine it was a trying time to say the least.
The thing with this storm that made it so detrimental was the fact that it was a slow-moving hurricane, and the rain seemed to go on forever as it passed over Houston. The flooding was astronomical with a recorded 51.88 inches of rain, which if I have done my research correctly, is not quite twice the average yearly rainfall in Aberdeen. This was a new record for rain totals from one storm in the U.S. Luckily, all of us in the Houston office got through without any loss. Mark and Jo (our UK colleagues who moved to Houston) almost had water in their home, but it stopped short of flooding them. Our team was also lucky in that we never lost power or had to worry about our drinking water, but so many other people did not share in our luck. The damage was unbelievable and there are many people who have lost their homes, belongings and sadly some their lives. It will take a great while for those affected to recover from this storm financially, and I am sure emotionally as well.
Here are some facts which give perspective about Hurricane Harvey:
1. Harvey was the first Category 4 hurricane to hit Texas since Hurricane Carla in 1961.
2. Nederland, Texas had the most rainfall with an incredible 60.58 inches within a nine-day span.
3. Harvey left 200 million yards of debris which will take a long time to clean up.
4. The estimate of the damage left after Harvey is $180 billion USD!
5. 13 million people were affected, 135,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and up to a million cars were destroyed.
Hopefully it will be a long time before Texas has to deal with a hurricane like this again. This storm was huge and horrible (just like another Harvey in the U.S. news lately…)! The only good that came from this storm was the evidence of human kindness. So many gave their time and money to help those who needed it desperately, and although it may not lessen the tragedy it was and continues to be a beautiful thing amongst all of the bad in the world.
By Lisa Piwonka
Internal Sales Support USA