Where Harvey Stands

A little history of Houston floods and where Harvey stands.

1. 1. I may be old, but I’m not old enough to remember the flood of 1935, in which waters rose to the second and third floors of Houston’s downtown buildings. This resulted in the creation of the Harris County Flood Control District.
   2. The first big flood I remember, was in 1979. It was caused by tropical storm Claudette that camped on the south side of Houston. The rainfall set a United States record that still stands today of 43” in a 24-hour stretch. Significant storm water drainage projects resulted from Claudette, including a series of drainage basins and flood gates in Seabrook for Clear Lake.
   3. In 2001, tropical storm Allison never gained hurricane status, but sat on Houston long enough to produce over 30” of rain in a few days. The downtown tunnel system was overwhelmed. Neighborhoods on the near north side along White Oak Bayou were flooded. Perhaps most tragically, the Texas Medical Center was underwater. The largest medical complex in the world lost over 100,000 research animals, 60,000 tumor samples and 25 years of research projects. TMC constructed an elaborate flood gate system to prevent future inundations.

So, how does Hurricane Harvey stack up to the historic floods?

1. In terms of depth, we’re not seeing water at the second and third floor of downtown buildings, such as 1935.
2. Claudette’s 43” in one day still stands as the record.
3. The medical center is inundated, but now it’s protected by the flood gate system installed over a decade ago.

What makes Harvey unique is the incredible breadth of the damage.

Addicks and Barker Reservoirs on the west side cover 26,000 acres. For the first time in history, Harvey filled them. Controlled releases to prevent extraordinary damage to the levees, are flooding historically safe neighborhoods. These reservoirs are 14 miles west of downtown, but are supplied by rainfall further west.

To the south, Lake Jackson and Columbia Lakes are evacuating. These communities are 50 miles south of Houston.

Lake Conroe is 45 miles north of Houston and 90+ miles north of Lake Jackson. They are releasing water at more than double the previous record, resulting in flooding in numerous downstream neighborhoods in the Conroe area.

On the east side, Baytown has significant flooding and evacuations. The gigantic Exxon oil refinery is damaged and at least ten refineries have shut down. Goldman Sachs reports that 16% of the U.S. refining is off-line because of Harvey.

We’ve had incredible water damage and amazing rain totals for 50 miles in every direction from Houston. In other words, from east to west or from north to south, the destruction is more than 100 miles across. That’s something close to 7,000 square miles.

In those 7,000 square miles, about 6½ million people work and reside. It is safe to say that every one of them has been affected, although, thankfully most have escaped the devastation of personal injury or property loss.

So, where does Harvey stand? My fear is that it is about to become the most destructive and expensive natural disaster in U.S. history. My hope is that it will retain that title forever.