Hurricane Harvey

Question 1

What category was the Hurricane Harvey hurricane in?

Answer 1

a Category 4 hurricane

Question 2

When did Hurricane Harvey hit?

Answer 2

August 25th, 2017

Question 3

What were the impacts of Hurricane Harvey in the USA?

Answer 3

• Peak rainfall accumulation of 131.8 cm- the wettest tropical hurricane on record in the USA. In 4 days, more than 100 cm of rain fell over Eastern Texas.
• A storm surge occurred causing/enhancing the flooding generated by rainfall
• Estimated cost of damage was up to $125 billion (one of the costliest natural disasters in US history)- a large proportion of these losses were sustained by uninsured homeowners.
• In Texas billions of dollars were lost from property damage the production of oil and gas was reduced owing to the closure of oil refineries in advance of the hurricane making landfall (contributing to a fuel shortage) and 700 businesses were damaged
• 83 confirmed deaths. 30,000 people were displaced. 1000 homes were completely destroyed. More than 300,000 people were without electricity.

Question 4

What was the preparation and responses?

Answer 4

• disaster response teams were on standby in Austin, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• national Hurricane Centre provided warnings from August 23rd onwards
• trump requested $5.95 billion of federal funding to respond to the event on August 31st
• There were more than 17000 rescues (13,000 in Texas alone)