Looking Back on Hurricane Harvey – A Personal View
This afternoon, it’s raining hard in my neighborhood again as I pause to reflect of Hurricane Harvey’s impact on our community two years ago.
On Friday, August 25, 1017, Hurricane Harvey the fiercest storm in a decade made landfall near Corpus Christi. For five days, the storm brought havoc to the Texas Coast, with Rainfall close to 52 inches, resulting in the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S. The storm resulted in at least 68 deaths and an estimated $125 billion in damages in Texas alone.
To me, Hurricane Harvey was a series of snapshots. By August 26, Hurricane Harvey had moved to the Houston area. At my home in Beaumont, Texas we too were experiencing dark days with continuous heavy rain. On Wednesday, August 29, near 10:00 PM, Harvey made its second landfall near Sabine Pass, Texas.
On August 30, I woke up to discover we were without power in my home. Sounds of generators were already being heard in my neighborhood (we had 10 days without power). The twelve- foot drainage ditch in my neighborhood was overflowing. On that day alone Jefferson County received 26.03-inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. Parts of our community were flooded while others became islands.
On August 31, the rain had stopped, but with employees evacuated or stranded in their homes, the major local refineries, Motiva, Exxon Mobil, Valero, and Total were forced to cease operations. Baptist Hospital in Beaumont, Texas began to evacuate patients as the entire city was without water service. My wife and I were surprised to hear an airboat in our neighborhood as the “Cajun Navy” began evacuating some of our neighbors. All we could do was listen in disbelief to the local radio station describe the flooding in our neighboring communities of Bevil Oaks, Sour Lake, Lumberton, Vidor, Port Arthur, Grove, Bridge City and Nederland. Although stranded myself, without city water and power, I continued to work for the Texas General Land Office Oil Spill Division’s Region 1’s office in Nederland, Texas. On that day, my job was receiving and recording Regional Oil Spill Reports. One of the many I received stands out. The reporting source told me, “yep, we had a three-gallon spill an hour ago (in Beaumont, Texas) but, I think it’s in the Gulf of Mexico by now”.
A week after making landfall near Corpus Christi, on Friday, September 1, the flooding had receded enough for me to make my way out of my neighborhood to return to work. By then, a Joint Emergency Operations Center had been set up in a mall near our office. There, in travel trailers, were members of the Texas General Land Office, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, FEMA and U.S. Coast Guard. Over the next few weeks, joint teams would travel the area assessing damage and pollution threats. The damage was extensive, but recovery had begun.
Although several homes in our neighbor flooded, ours was spared. Nevertheless, we were prepared, as we have maintained flood insurance since moving here a decade ago.