According to the Census of 2013 the city of Houston, Texas carries a population of 2.196 million. Houston is located by the Gulf of Mexico in Southeast Texas and is part of the Harris County. Houston is best described as having a humid subtropical weather.
Table 1. above shows the nature events that have happened in Houston, TX. For the most part Houston has encountered a lot of floods. These floods have been caused by heavy rain, thunderstorms and hurricanes around the area. They all have impacted the city of Houston and have been recorded along with many other events to have caused a lot of damage. (Ref. 1) The first event that happen on July 5, 2009 caused around 9 billion in damage for the city of Houston. A tropical storm hit the
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3) A heavy rain pour down the city of Houston on June 19, 2006. According to the article from NBC news, there was a lot of cars stall and many neighborhoods flooded. There was as much as, “10.5 inches of rain reported,” and in some areas there was six inches of rain which caused delays in airports. The Houston city is no stranger to floods yet the amount of rain that poured as such little time was surprising. (Ref. 4) On April 28, 2009 Houston, TX experience yet another flood and it was caused by the aftermath of a Tornado. People, houses, vehicles and roads were affected. Many people had to rescued and cars along with ambulances were submerged under water. Highways were forced to be closed and people were captured canoeing or walking to get to places due to high waters in the area. In just 24 hours about nine inches of rain were being reported in areas in Houston. (Ref. 5) On May 29, 2015 which was Memorial Day the rain decided to pour. This left around 12 inches of rain in just hours. This flood caused a lot of damage to homes and buildings. Unfortunately, there was cases of people that did lose their lives. Air rescues had to be performed along with emergency evacuation due to severe flood for some people. It was almost at much severity as the tropical storm Allison that happen in
Many people in this storm were injured, hurt, and killed. According to New York Times article, “At least 39 people have died, including a Houston police officer, a family trapped in a van beneath surging floodwater.” New York Times article also said that Houston was ‘built to flood’.
Since the beginning of time there have been countless weather disasters, which include hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. Comparable to other natural disasters, there is a great deal of severe damage to properties, businesses and unfortunately loss of life. There were a total of 422 tornadoes throughout the country in 1953. Texas has endured a multitude of disastrous storms; however on May 11, 1953 there was a particular storm that forever transformed a city called Waco, Texas known as 1953 Waco Tornado.
In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount
On the morning of August Twenty-ninth, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region. The storm brought the water to about twenty feet high, swallowing eighty percent of the New Orleans city immediately. The flood and torrential rainstorm wreaked havoc and forced millions of people evacuate from the city. According to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, Katrina caused approximately one hundred and eight billion dollars in damage. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive disasters have ever occurred in the United States, but it also revealed a catastrophic government at all levels’ failure in responding to the contingency.
It rained for a whole week straight none stop. It even had as much water as in the Mississippi river at the time. It caused a lot of damage through the flood costing the U.S 17 million dollars just to fix the damages that happened with the flood. The American Red Cross team had to step in help with the damages done by this flood. No one knew why it was raining for a whole week straight.
Harvey known as an apocalyptic storm for many Houstonian’s who have described the scenery and event for that weekend. Many homes, businesses, and schools destroyed causing it to be one of the biggest recovery mission in the nation. A big flare of controversy between the government and the state happened as well. Even with many homes lost and so much sadness spread across south Texas and Houston many texans came together as one.
On April 18, 2016 Yahoo reports Houston, Texas have flooding that forces residents to move out their homes and live in a nearby shelter. The flooding causes damage to the electricity lines, foreclosures of freeways, and forcing schools to close down because of the weather. One million students got the day off including workers. It’s deeply saddened that five victims were dead in this weather. There is over 450 water rescue and victims were transported to the mall to shelter away until the storm passes. It’s hard for people to drive in the freeway because the water can be up to 15 feet deep. The weather causes frustration toward the Houston resident.
The New York Times writers explains all the events happening during Harvey’s next landfall in “Harvey Live Updates: Trump Heads to a Flooded Texas”. In case you’ve been living underneath a construction site for your whole life, Harvey made hard landfalls in Corpus Christi and Houston, TX along with other cities in Texas. With hundreds of thousands of people under evacuation orders, shelters in Houston filled to bursting with people who craved some news about the safety of their loved ones and the state of their homes. Parts of the Houston area set a record for rainfall from a single storm anywhere in the continental United States, with a top reading on Tuesday afternoon, since the storm began, of 51.88 inches. Jeffrey Lindner, a meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District, said 25 to 30 percent of Harris County's 1,800 square miles of land was flooded.
Hurricane Harvey had and environmental. Economic, social and political impact on the city of Houston as well as the state of Texas.
Hurricane Harvey impacted the city of Houston drastically. It destroyed numerous of houses, cars, business and families. The number of fatalities was 82. Inflicted 125 billion of dollars in damage and its the second costliest hurricane that has hit the U.S.. Hurricane Harvey lasted approximately 18 days, which was enough to completely damage the city and break families apart.The catastrophes caused by Hurricane Harvey have influenced citizens to come together to restore the city of Houston. One of the many heroes that helped the citizens of Houston was Jonathan Baylor. Jonathan, a major in Public Relations came to the University of Houston-Downtown to share his experience throughout Hurricane Harvey. He described the two main points of his
On August 29, 2005, disaster struck New Orleans, Louisiana in the form of Hurricane Katrina. Since the city is 10 feet below sea level, it is susceptible to large amounts of flooding (Bunch, 2005).
The National Weather Service (2014) reported that the Metro-Atlanta suffered disastrous flooding in 2009 after an extended downpour that stemmed from sufficient moisture from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlanta’s topography, and the Gulf of Mexico. In 24 hours, the rain had reached approximately 20 inches, resulting in a significant flash flooding that made river basins stay swollen for weeks. This disaster significantly affected the Atlanta, Georgia community and its economy with a property loss worth $500 million reported.
Emmett called it the most significant flood event since Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, which left 41 people dead. It caused more than $5 billion in property damage in Harris County alone, according to the county's Flood Control District.
On August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana as a category three storm and brought with it some of the most catastrophic effects that any hurricane has ever left behind. Twenty foot surges of flood water washed into New Orleans after the levees broke, and ended up flooding over 80% of the city. It was now in the hands of the United States government to help the millions of displaced Americans find proper shelter, food, water, and services that were required for their recovery.
Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast with tremendous force at daybreak, August 29, 2005, severely punishing regions that included the city of New Orleans and its neighboring state Mississippi. Resulting in a total of just over 1700 people killed, and hundreds of thousands missing. When we think of Hurricane Katrina stories, we think of stories that were published by the media such as, “Packing 145-mile-an-hour winds as it made landfall, the category 3 storm left more than a million people in three states without power and submerged highways even hundreds of miles from its center. The hurricane's storm surge a 29-foot wall of water pushed ashore when the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast was the highest ever measured in the United States.