Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey poured down the most rainwater ever recorded in the U.S. from one single storm. Harvey left around 42,000 people living in the shelters because of the flooding. 780,000 people were forced to evacuate die to Harvey's strength. Hurricane Harvey caused a lot of destruction and Texans still have a lot of clean up. To begin, Hurricane Harvey has caused a lot of damage. Harvey's wind speeds, storm surges, and flooding caused a lot of damage. Harvey was a category four hurricane with wind speeds up to 130 miles per hour. Hurricane Harvey caused flash flooding, damage to houses and local stores. The larges storm surge recorded during Hurricane Harvey was near Corpus Christi. The storm surge was as high as 12 feet (weather.com). Was the cause of Harvey because of us or was it because of the climate change? Experts say that Harvey was a man made hurricane. The main source or cause of Hurricane Harvey and all hurricanes was carbon dioxide. People are the ones putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Climate change also had a big impact on the toughness of this hurricane. The climate change made Harvey worse. Warmer oceans also fuel stronger hurricanes (iflscience.com). A lot of money had to be raised due to the cost of all the damage. The cost of the damage in the Houston area totaled up to $29.8 billion. Federal Funding helped with an amazing $15 billion. Half of the money went to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). $886.6 million went towards helping out the citizens of Texas. $683.2 million was spent on housing related expenses. $203.4 million went toward other assistance and $500 was spent on displaced people. FEMA approved an additional $327.8 million to a local government for roads, bridges, and levies. The state of Texas raise $103 million. Under half of this money went to Houston's recovery efforts and $43 million went to deploying the National Guard. $10 million went to the Department of Public Safety for the Texas Emergency Management Division. Red Cross raise $300 million. $148 million went towards financial aid in form of $400 stipends to more than 370,000 homes and the rest went towards Red Cross shelters for their food, water, and supplies. The Rebuild Texas Fund received $70.7 million and all that money went towards rebuilding houses and fixing them. JJ Watt helped raise money for Harvey also. He raised $37 million and all that money was spent on rebuilding houses and getting supplies for the shelters(Smith). In addition, to the money being spent on supplies for the shelters and the Texans, there were few aftershocks after Hurricane Harvey that made it possible to start clean up right away. There were little aftershocks after Harvey. The Arkema Chemical Plant had an explosion due to the floodwaters. The chemical plant also caught fire and released poisonous smoke into the air. Experts think that Houston had contaminants from many oil facilities after Harvey. Due to the explosion and dangerous smoke, people were forced to evacuate. What caused this explosion? "Because of flooding from Harvey, the plant lost power and the ability to safely store chemicals, that if not kept below a certain temperature, can explode and cause intense fires," says npr.org. Did this cause more deaths? Refineries, oil facilities, and chemical plants contaminated the Houston area. This caused more deaths. David Sirota stated, "The effort to stop the chemical plant, safety rules were backed by top Texas Republican lawmakers, who have received big campaign donations from chemical industry donors." The chemical plant was fined $110,000 due to its damage. Arkema has caused a lot of pollution in the area. There were plenty of donations not only in money, but also as supplies. Over 3 million meals and 3 million bottles of water were donated to Texas. There was also 25 tons of pet food donated. The donations were distributed to shelters across Texas by trucks, planes, cars, and buses (fema.gov). Almost 700 shelters were opened to help people from flooding water. 80,000 homes had at least 18 inches of water inside them. 23,000 of them had five feet of water inside. Hurricane Harvey dumped 19 trillion gallons of rainwater on Texas causing floods. That was the most rain recorded in the U.S. Next, a lot of citizens and professionals were helping people get out of their houses. Most Texans didn't have flood insurance, so it left some of them with no choice, but to leave their properties. The government assisted some of the people without flood insurance. FEMA and other organizations are helping local communities and towns get their homes back to normal. People are volunteering to help cleanup and hand out donations. Some parts in Texas got a lot of flood damage. Currently parts of Texas are still cleaning up, while others are done or close to done (nytimes.com). Harvey left behind debris from the wind and the flooding. Homes that were filled with water had flood damage, so most of the beds, couches, tables, and anything four feet and below had to be thrown out. Parts around Houston and Corpus Christi are still cleaning up today. The debris that was in the water was left on the streets when the water receded. Homeowners and volunteers were cleaning the sidewalks. When the water went back into the bayou and ocean the houses that had water in them had flood damage. This left people tearing up the inside of their houses because of the damage and mold (nytimes.com). In conclusion, Hurricane Harvey took a big impact on Texas. It caused 42,000 Texans to be held in shelters. The flooding was outrageous and caused 780 roads to be impassible. There was also 23 ports that were closed. The flooding also caused the contamination due to the Arkema Chemical Plant's explosion. When the water receded lots of people were left with damaged houses and most of their belongings were lost or destroyed. Others brought in donations that helped with food, water, and supplies. As you have read in this paper, Hurricane Harvey caused a lot of damage to Texas. Texans have now been left with the challenge of cleaning up.
Works Cited Chappel, Bill, and Merrit Kennedy. "Chemical Fire Burns at Flooded Arkema Plant In Crosby, Texas." The two-Way, 31 Aug. 2017, www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/31/547504624/explosions-reported-at-flooded-arkema-chemical-plant-in-crosbey-texas.
iflscience.com. Climate Change Isn't Responsible For Hurricane Harvey- The Truth Is Much More Complicated. www.iflscience.com/environment/climate-change-isnt-responsible-for-hurricane-harvey-the-truth-is-much-more-complicated/all/.
Davis, Amy. "Where's the money? Harvey flood victims, donors want to know." Web, 25 Sept. 2017, doi: Texas.
fema.gov. "Federal Government Continues Response to Hurricane Harvey." FEMA, 1 Sept. 2017, www.fema.gov/news-release/2017/09/01/federal-government-continues-response-hurricane-harvey.
Graham, David. "Why Ordinary Citizens Are Acting as First Responders in Houston." Web, 28, Aug. 2017. doi: Washington D.C.
Kimmelmann, Michael. "Lessons From Hurricane Harvey: Houston's Struggle Is America's Tale." The New York Times, 11 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/11/climate/houston-flooding-climate.html.
Lafrance, Adrienne. "The Latest on Hurricane Harvey." Web, 29 Aug. 2017, doi: Washington D.C.
Samenow, Jason, and Brian McNoldy. "Harvey makes landfall in Texas as Category 4 Storm." Web, 25 Aug. 2017, doi: Virginia.
Khou-TV. "Shelter List: NRG and GRB are primary shelters." Web, 6 Sept. 2017, doi: Texas.
Sirota, David. "Texas Republicans Helped Chemical Plant That Exploded Lobby Against Safety Rules." International Business Times, 31 Aug. 2017, www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/texas-republicans-helped-chemical-plant-exploded-lobby-against-safety-rules.
Smith, Morgan. "How much has been raised for Harvey relief - and how's it being spent?" The Texas Tribune, 6 Oct. 2017, www.texastribune.org/2017/10/06/how-much-money-has-been-raised-harvey-relief-and-how-it-being-spent/.
Semester I Student's Choice Reflection 1.List one thing you've learned from the writing this paper that you have applied to other writing assignments.
I learned how to put together a works cited list for a research paper.
2. Identify a challenge you faced while writing this paper (this can be at any stage of the writing process). How did you overcome the challenge? What did you learn?
A challenge that I had while writing this paper is trying to find the information for my works cited page. I got help from my English teacher. I learned how and where to look for things that are needed in your works cited page.
3. What genre does this paper fit? How do you know?
The genre of this paper is informative. I know this because my paper is a research paper, therefore it gives you information about my topic. It is informing you about Hurricane Harvey.
4. Given more time to work on this paper, how would you improve it?
I would take more time on finding more information for some of my paragraphs.
5. Why did you choose to include this paper? What do you want me to learn about you as a writer?
I chose to include this paper so the reader can learn how dangerous and intense this storm was and how they overcame the destruction Hurricane Harvey caused. I want you to learn to cherish everyone and everything because it could be taken away from you in a matter of seconds, just like Harvey did to many people.