HARVEY DEVASTATION, COURAGE, and RECOVERY in the EYE OF THE STORM P A a vi n a m s e at St n- a c eri m A n sti u A er/ n n a J y a J Copyright © 2017 by The Texas Tribune No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Triumph Books LLC, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610. This book is available in quantity at special discounts for your group or organization. For further information, contact: Triumph Books LLC 814 North Franklin Street Chicago, Illinois 60610 (312) 337-0747 www.triumphbooks.com Printed in U.S.A. ISBN: 978-1-62937-585-4 Design by Patricia Frey The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public service news organization that educates and engages Texans on matters of Texas politics, policy and government through free news, data and events. Visit our website at www.texastribune.org. With a presence in every ZIP code in America, The Salvation Army serves survivors before, during and after disasters, for however long it takes. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, they will continue to provide physical, emotional and spiritual support to communities as they rebuild. Michael Stravato CONTENTS Introduction by Emily Ramshaw, Texas Tribune Editor-in-Chief 5 Part 1: Before the Storm 9 Part 2: Harvey Hits Houston 29 Part 3: The Aftermath 89 HARVEY 4 DEVASTATION, COURAGE, AND RECOVERY IN THE EYE OF THE STORM INTRODUCTION hen your state is smacked first responders, many of them good Samaritans W head-on by a hurricane, when who hurtled into the storm in airboats, canoes coastal communities are nearly or monster trucks. wiped off the map, when the Sadly, not everyone made it to safety. fourth-largest city in America An elderly couple and their four great- is submerged in floodwater, a public-service grandchildren died when floodwaters swept newsroom doesn’t think twice. It springs into their van off of the road. action. A woman drowned in a rain-swollen canal That’s what happened at The Texas Tribune while trying to carry her toddler to safety; when Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas. the three-year-old, who survived, was found It was a storm scenario our reporters had clinging to her mother. anxiously and repeatedly warned of in the last Four volunteer rescuers perished when a year with colleagues at ProPublica and Reveal strong current dragged their boat into a power from the Center for Investigative Reporting: line. Harvey’s powerful winds — a Category A 34-year veteran of the Houston Police 4 upon impact near Rockport, the strongest Department drowned in his car trying to get Texas hurricane in half a century — demolished back to work. beachfront communities, wrecking vacation Amid these chilling tales and heartbreaking homes and trailer parks alike, and tossing boats losses came the devastating tallies: More and cars around like confetti. than 80 deaths. An estimated $180 billion in And its unprecedented rainfall — a mind- damage. Enough debris to fill a college football boggling 52 inches — drowned Houston, an stadium more than 100 times over. And already flood-prone city of more than 2 million, thousands of coastal residents with nowhere to as well as communities up and down the live, nowhere to attend school, no semblance coast. Highways turned into wave pools, full of normalcy in their futures. At the height of neighborhoods into lakes. Bayous breached the storm, 30,000 Texans turned to emergency their borders and reservoirs spilled into streets. shelters. Locals, many of whom heeded officials’ calls And there were questions: about warnings to shelter in place, were forced to make daring that went unheeded, about Houston’s escapes as the floodwaters rose, or await brave lax development policies, about flooded Buffalo Bayou jumped its banks and flooded downtown Houston on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. Photo by Michael Stravato 5 HARVEY neighborhoods that had rebuilt time and again, about the paving over of wetlands that would’ve provided an environmental buffer. But more than anything else, there were selfless acts of heroism, from the first responders who evacuated their own families before heading back into chest-deep water, to the “Cajun Navy” — out-of-state volunteers who piloted their personal boats on around-the-clock rescue missions. Hurricane Harvey amplified the strength, resilience and heart of the state’s coastal region. It showcased the unbelievable generosity of fellow Texans, who opened up their homes and their wallets to countless evacuees. And it highlighted just how well the state’s leaders could work together when they put deep partisan divisions aside. This natural disaster also underscored The Texas Tribune’s role as a trusted and reliable source of information at home and around the globe, giving our newsroom a sense of responsibility like never before. We owe a debt of gratitude to our national investigative reporting partners, ProPublica and Reveal. In a New York Times op-ed published Aug. 30, columnist David Leonhardt wrote in “Houston, Warned” of our prescient investigative reporting projects of the last year, which foretold how Houston was ripe for the perfect storm. When the national spotlight moves away, The Texas Tribune and its partners ProPublica and Reveal will still be on the ground in Houston, devoting real resources to asking the tough questions that are crucial to this battered region’s future. —Emily Ramshaw, Texas Tribune Editor-in-Chief The Theater District in downtown Houston is flooded by water from Buffalo Bayou after it jumped its banks on Sunday, Aug. 22, 2017. Photo by Michael Stravato 6 DEVASTATION, COURAGE, AND RECOVERY IN THE EYE OF THE STORM 7 Pu Ying Huang PART 1 BEFORE THE STORM