AUSTIN, Texas — Three years ago this week, Hurricane Harvey began its “rain of terror” across Texas after first coming ashore near Rockport, Texas, on Aug. 25, 2017. The Category 3 storm set off historic floods that destroyed thousands of homes and businesses from the Louisiana border to Central Texas.
Most of Harvey’s story wasn’t as much about winds and tides as about rain, although popular Gulf destinations Port Aransas and Rockport sustained heavy wind damage.
Unlike most hurricanes that continue moving forward on a path until they fall apart over dry land, Harvey was different.
It struck the Texas coast three times – at Rockport, near Houston, then at Port Arthur – after slowly meandering through the Gulf of Mexico. Harvey simply refused to move, dumping an incredible amount of rain that literally fell for days nonstop.
The National Weather Service reported that an entire year’s worth of rain fell in one week over southeast Texas. More than 60 inches of rain accumulated at Nederland, south of Beaumont.
The floodwaters were so heavy in Houston that scientists said that city sank almost an inch under the weight.
Harvey flooded hundreds of miles of Texas from Port Arthur near the Louisiana border to LaGrange, over a hundred miles inland. Even Austin experienced some minor street flooding from the storm.
It was the second-worst hurricane since 1900 in the amount of property damage: $125 billion.
But Harvey was also a story about everyday heroes as people pitched in and joined emergency workers to help rescue their neighbors. The images of thousands of water rescues flooded the airwaves and were seen online.
Hurricane Harvey: Three years have gone, but still very much in the memory of Texans who lived through it.
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