The wind shifted whole trailer, ripping away gas and water lines, all of which caused structural damage.” The home was condemned and many of the person’s belongings were lost. One resident of Rockport reported that “the eaves in the front of trailer were peeled away and the drywall was pushed in, leaving gaping holes where water and debris could come in. It was heart-wrenching to witness people returning to damaged homes to gather their destroyed belongings. It was impossible to tell where all the scattered roofing and siding debris had originated. Throughout the Rockport area, palm trees were snapped in half, structures were missing their roofs, and homes - small and large, new and old - were flattened and torn apart. On our way to Rockport, we saw an increased number of utility poles knocked down and more tree debris scattered about the streets. The damage this resident experienced, however, was relatively mild: “Only a few shingles fell off the roof of my apartment complex during the passing of the storm,” and “a few young trees uprooted within the complex and the streets nearby.” One resident we talked to reported feeling “vibrations from the strong winds for six to seven hours” as this person took shelter in a third-floor apartment. In Corpus Christi, we saw damage to street and business signs, utility poles and power lines, fences and trees. The vast disparity in the degree of damage between adjacent structures suggests highly localized wind gusts. Also surprising was that the damage was sporadic: Some homes were left with only a few walls standing while neighboring homes of similar design had little to no damage. But we were surprised to find that the damage in all of the communities we visited was almost exclusively related to strong winds. We expected the damage we witnessed to have been caused by a combination of strong winds and storm surge, as normally seen from a hurricane of this strength. Above: Ample tree debris, leaning utility poles and missing shingles were observed in Ingleside, just inland from Port Aransas. Top: Neighboring houses near Copano Bay in Rockport show varying degrees of damage, suggesting that highly localized wind gusts and/or differences in the houses' structural integrity played roles in determining damage. 30, Harvey made its final landfall, near Cameron, La., as a tropical storm with sustained wind speeds of 75 kilometers per hour. Over the next several days, Hurricane Harvey weakened while on land, but then returned to the Gulf of Mexico where it once again gained strength. In its eyewall, Harvey had sustained wind speeds of 215 kilometers per hour on Aug. since Wilma hit South Florida in October 2005 (which followed three other major hurricanes plus numerous weaker ones that year). Hurricane Harvey was the first major hurricane - meaning Category 3 or higher - to make landfall in the U.S. Credit: Stephanie Fovenyessy and Sierra Patterson with data from the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center. The inset map shows the details of Hurricane Harvey's path once it made landfall in Texas, and again later in Louisiana. Hurricane Ike's path in 2008 and Hurricane Celia's path in 1970 (both of which caused significant damage in Texas) are illustrated by the gray dashed lines for comparison. The colors on the path indicate the tropical storm strength.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |