It’s hurricane season in the United States and Hurricane Harvey arrived in the U.S as the first major hurricane since Katrina hit in 2005. The destruction it caused meanwhile has been truly catastrophic. By the time it made landfall on Friday in Texas, it was a Category 4 Hurricane. No one however, could have predicted the explosion of rainfall that took place afterwards. What is proving to be the heaviest rainfall in U.S history, Hurricane Harvey dumped a year’s worth of rain in just one week over Texas.

Such a downpour was bound to cause destruction and it surely has done so. With highways turning into oceans, the shots are somewhat jaw dropping. The Levees system only built up to handle a 1 in a 100 year disaster, nothing could stand in the way of this 1 in a 1000 year catastrophe. With rainfall being recorded in feet instead of inches meanwhile, the final measurement came out to be almost 52 inches. That’s more than 4 feet of rain. All this mayhem is going to take its toll both on the economy & the population of the area impacted.

ECONOMIC LOSSES:

According to senior meteorologists, Hurricane Harvey might prove to be the costliest Natural disaster in U.S history. The reports are only preliminary but even they show a damage in excess of a 160 billion U.S dollars. This bypasses the earlier record set by Hurricane Katrina of a 100 billion dollars. Once the waters recede and the skies clear, this number is only going to rise. The long term impact of such a disaster is also going to be unprecedented on the overall economic balance of the state of Texas.

HUMAN LOSSES:

The latest figures in terms of human casualties due to Hurricane Harvey are 30 people. That is however a premature figure as the storm is still alive & kicking & rescue is only in its initial phases. The number is surely going to rise by the dozens once rescuers can travel to the worse affected areas. It’s been almost a week now since parts of Texas have been unreachable & the death toll there can be anyone’s guess. To everyone in the storm affected area, may we say stay safe & best of luck.