Hurricane Harvey’s Social Impacts
Hurricane Harvey is worth studying diligently, not only due to the storm’s magnitude, but because it serves as a flagrant example of what happens when neither disaster mitigation nor adaptation measures are implemented. In this paper, I will discuss the origins of the hurricane and its impacts on Houston and Harris County, and discuss how the disaster was managed from the local, state and federal levels. Throughout the paper, I will point out examples of vulnerabilities that exacerbated the damage. My hope through writing this paper is that it will serve as a wake up call for our country to do more in mitigation and adaptation, and to make disaster preparedness a priority.
Hurricane Harvey, which struck the southeastern coast of Texas in August 2017, was considered the most extreme rain event in U.S. history. According to experts, Harvey's extreme slow movement over a five-day period (August 26-30) resulted in catastrophic flooding that is estimated to cost $200 billion in damages. Harvey was classified as a Category 4 Hurricane with winds of 130 mph near Rockport, Texas. Though the winds were devastating, most people underestimated the rainfall, which actually caused the most damage. According to scientists, the warm water in the Gulf of Mexico intensified the rainfall, and the scarcity of wind in the upper atmosphere meant that there was nothing to steer the storm away from land. In addition, the storm surge elevated Galveston Bay which blocking drainage of the rain and created rivers out of roads. The result is the death of 70 people, 28,000 square miles of Texas is estimated to have been flooded, and 42,000 people have been displaced from their homes and living in shelters.
Rainfall (inches) due to Hurricane Harvey
Hurricanes in Texas are relatively commonplace. The most significant one its history was Hurricane Galveston in the year 1900 which killed 8,000 people. Evidently, the residents and tourists of the town did not heed warnings that a strong storm was on its way, and thus, most people did not evacuate, leading to the high number of deaths. In the most recent 21st century past, Hurricane Allison (2001), Hurricane Rita (2005), and Hurricane Dolly (2008) all left Texas with billions of dollars in damages. However, the most recent devastating storm was Hurricane Ike in 2008 was considered between Category 2 and Category 4, and damages totaled $19.3 billion. The accompanying large storm surge obliterated the communities of Crystal Beach, Gilchrist, and High Island. The storm knocked out electrical power to 2.6 million people across Texas and Louisiana, and there were 20 direct and 64 indirect deaths.
The emergency messaging and evacuation messages were mixed, thus eliciting a mixed public response. Though thousands evacuated, thousands more did not. Evidently, many believed they were safer to stay home than to attempt to venture out, and in some ways, these feelings were warranted. After all, over two-thirds of flood-related deaths occurred in vehicles as people attempted to escape. On the local level, numerous flash flood emergencies were issued for the Houston and Beaumont, Texas, metropolitan areas, and for Bastrop County and nearby communities. On the federal level, so six people at the National Hurricane Center started helping to reach out to reporters, coordinate with media outlets and blitz social media. On Thursday, August 24, the storm was categorized into Category 1; then became Category 2; The 4 p.m. headline warned of “life-threatening and devastating flooding.” On Friday, August 25, it was upgraded to Category 3, with sustained winds nearing 120 miles an hour. Storm surge is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted astronomical tides. The center issued separate storm surge warnings and included them in each of its bulletins about Harvey, warning of catastrophic flooding.
In purely geographic terms, Houston is considered to be an area highly vulnerable to storms. It is a low-lying city situated on Galveston Bay, on the Gulf of Mexico. The city center is only 50 feet above sea level, and much of the city was built on top of marshes and swamps. Its wetlands historically served as a natural flood barrier absorbing rainfall, but due to significant urban development over the last 25 years, the city has lost almost 50 percent of its wetlands to development. Its lax (if not completely absent) zoning policies have allowed the city to become a concrete jungle, paving over 166,000 acres in the past 15 years. It is easy to see that the urban environment paved the way for this disaster to create the amount of damage that it did.
The city’s demographic makeup has also brought up issues surrounding environmental justice. Houston has a population of 2.5 million people and is the 4th largest city in the United States in terms of population size. Since 2000, the city of Houston and Harris County have undergone a population explosion and over the past several decades, a demographic one. Harris County has climbed from 3.4 million people to 4.6 million in 2016 — a 35 percent increase, with growing immigrant and refugee populations. In fact, over one million residents of this area are foreign-born, and Pew Research estimates that more than a half-million people in the Houston metro area are undocumented immigrants. Natural disasters are known to affect low-income communities the most, as they do not have the resources to relocate and it is much harder for them to resettle and rebuild their lives. According to ABC News, 1.3 million people in Houston are lacking health insurance and 22.5 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. In addition, the city’s historical lack of zoning laws allowed for residential housing to be built in areas that were prone to flooding, and not surprisingly, these were areas of low-income communities. The income disparity in the city also begs the question of environmental justice issues. According to a Huffington Post article, Houston flooding always hits poor, non-white neighborhoods hardest. In addition, unsanitary conditions such as the flooding of water treatment plants and sewage, has caused sickness and death for those who live in these low-income neighborhoods. For example, a woman died of E. coli bacteria which was found in the floodwaters in her home.
The other issue that is not covered as much by the media is the exorbitant amount of air and chemical pollution that Hurricane Harvey unleashed. The petrochemical plants, oil refineries and shipping lanes that run adjacent to neighborhoods of color on Houston’s east side spread toxic waste each time the city floods, adding to the woes of those communities. Not only do the floods devastate the people most affected by storms by destroying their homes, but the nearby petrochemical plants also pollute the water and cause more health hazards for them. According to The Guardian, “Communities face surging toxic fumes and possible water contamination, as refineries and plants report more than 2,700 tons of extra pollution.” The chemical spills are linked to heightened cancer risk, gastrointestinal ailments, and other illnesses. As Houston has not met national air quality standards since the introduction of the Clean Air Act in 1970, it will be interesting to see if public outcry will be enough to alter Houston’s behavior. A civil society group, Residents Against Flooding, is suing the city in hopes of getting certain flood protection projects built.
Source: The Washington Post
The leadership in Houston, in both the public and private sectors do not support climate change initiatives, as they benefit from the status quo of promoting the economic interests of oil production. The ongoing perception is to deny that climate change is exacerbating these storms (these are just “freak occurrences”) and the belief that the city can engineer its way out of disasters. According to Pro Publica, Houston’s two top flood control officials state that the current zoning laws are mostly sufficient and that the city’s biggest challenge is not managing rapid urban growth but retrofitting outdated infrastructure. In a place where climate change is not seen as a threat and priorities are elsewhere, It is easy to see then, how this city has not prepared itself for Hurricane Harvey’s visit.
This is further exacerbated by the fact that though scientists are increasingly able to link some extreme weather events to climate change, the causes and magnitude of hurricanes are still very hard to determine. Kenneth Kunkel, a researcher with the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies, stated that even without climate change as a factor, oceans are normally warm this time of year, and that the Gulf of Mexico has been warmer than average lately (some estimates show 5 degrees warmer), most likely strengthening the storm. Kunkel was concerned when he saw public statements of relief that the storm had been downgraded from Category 4 strength to a tropical storm because the change in technical terminology may have confused the public and led local officials to lose focus on the greater threat, which was the heavy, ongoing rainfall that lasted several days.
The hope is that the communities of Texas and the United States as a whole will be impacted by the stories of trauma, death, tragedies, and victories of the people who have been affected. Scientific data is not enough. “We are scientists, and we are used to numbers and quantitative ways and technical ways of speaking,” quotes Mr. Brennan. ”When the numbers from a major storm start rolling in, the scientists and media coordinators stiffen. Phrases like “Category 4” and “40 inches of rain” and “stalled hurricane” and “unprecedented flooding” start to have life-changing consequences for the people in the hurricane’s path. Indeed, despite the numerous “public service announcements,” many people did not really understand the gravity of the disaster, and suffered tremendously because of it.
There seems to be a glimmer of hope. We are starting to see a movement throughout cities across the U.S. where city leaders are engaging their emergency management offices to update or create their hazard mitigation plans. But this may not be enough; long-term disaster recovery plans need to be considered as well. The majority of residents of Houston did not have flood insurance because many were technically not living in a regular flood zone. It is up to municipalities to carry the responsibility of equipping their citizens for disasters. We have seen time and again that the federal government is cumbersome and is unable to show up to disasters in a timely manner. Disasters have now been categorized as local incidences, further washing away federal responsibility. Communities must begin to prepare for the worst, and to expect the unexpected.
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