Friday evening, Hurricane Harvey hit Rockport, Texas with 130 mile-an-hour winds, essentially destroying a city of 10,000 people. Since then, the storm was downgraded, but it moved East to the city of Houston, where it’s been hovering since — dropping more rain than Houston has ever seen before — creating 5500 refugees already. Thousands have been rescued with thousands more still at risk as first responders are being sent in from other parts of the country. As if record-breaking rainfall wasn’t enough, massive releases are needed from two giant reservoirs — even though they’ll make flooding worse. We update an unprecedented disaster due in part to the failure of long-term planning.
America's fourth-largest city is drowning
More
- Hurricane Harvey: How to help
- National Hurricane Center on Harvey
- Shaw on why Houston wasn't ready for Harvey
- Thomas on Trump preparing to travel to Houston
- Associated Press' complete coverage of Hurricane Harvey
- Hennessy-Fiske on death toll from Harvey at 8 as 30,000 flee to Texas shelters
- FEMA on Hurricane Harvey
Credits
Guests:
- J. Marshall Shepherd - University of Georgia - @DrShepherd2013
- Al Shaw - ProPublica - @A_L
- Ken Thomas - Associated Press - @kthomasdc
- Molly Hennessy-Fiske - Washington Post reporter - @mollyhf