Flood

Local businesses are estimated to have suffered billions of dollars in damage from Hurricane Harvey, not taking into account disruption of Houston’s economic output, valued at USD 10 billion per week before the hurricane.

Just south of Tokyo on September 15, 1947, Typhoon Kathleen made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane.

Even as all eyes were on Irma's destructive path through the Caribbean and its approach toward Florida, AIR's damage survey team were in Houston, TX, studying the flood damage caused by Hurricane Harvey's record-breaking precipitation.

While it may sound strange, in many ways the people in Rockport, Texas, whose homes were destroyed by the strong winds that accompanied Hurricane Harvey, are the lucky ones. It is the people who suffered from Harvey's other major peril—the devastating flooding—that are in far worse shape.

Harvey has rewritten the record books for daily to total rainfall records for many locales across the state of Texas, as well as the continental United States.

Hurricane Harvey's recorded 130 mph winds and 3 meter storm surge—and the damage they caused—were certainly noteworthy, but they are not what people will remember.

Natural catastrophes can contribute to outbreaks of disease by damaging infrastructure, displacing people, and hampering the function of public health programs. In this post we will look specifically at one of the most problematic perils in terms of disease spread: flooding.

When we think of disease outbreaks, we often think about dramatic epidemics of novel disease agents (Zika, HIV, Ebola, etc.) sweeping through a population that has no natural defenses against them. However, most outbreaks are of known diseases.

Before dawn on Saturday April 1, 2017, rain drenched the Andes Mountains in southwestern Colombia. In just a few hours, 130 mm fell—about a third of the region’s average for the whole of March.

Whenever I have to clear snow off my driveway I am reminded how much I prefer rain because it soaks into the ground or runs off without me having to do anything.