Question

Review how hurricane Harvey influenced Port of Houston in terms of scale of damage to ports and transport infrastructures and the decision-making process before, during, and after the disaster.

Answer 1

Hurricane Harvey struck the port of Houston on Aug 25 2017 and caused almost $125 billion in damages to Texas. Texas was almost rebuild after the intensive hurricane. This was one of the worst hurricanes post Katrina.

Port of Houston was one of the most important ports as it handled 70% of golf coast's containerized cargo. The cyclone had caused heavy floods across city and almost submerged most of the ground floor houses.

As far as the port was concerned, floodwaters had brought heavy silt and made them deposit at the port entrance making it almost impossible for any ship to enter. Further, inter-terminal connectivity was lost and all the data centres were damaged. This almost halted the movement of ships to ports for some time.

Port of Houston played a significant role in the American economy as even loss of one foot depth in the channel causes almost $281 million dollars per annum.

After the disaster the committee (Longoria and Roger) decided to improve waterways in order to make it more resilient. They also worked towards reducing the impact of silt laden water at the channels.