Talk:Hurricane Harvey

Rearranging the Start

@Jasper Deng: Hurricane Harvey is primarily notable for dumping torrential rains on Houston and the surrounding areas, thereby causing immense damage. While it caused a record amount of damage, it did that by dumping all that rain and doing all that damage. When we write about other things - like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, or the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, we generally start off by stating what the event was (a massive megathrust earthquake, a category 5 hurricane, whatever), then the damage it did, then conclude by noting it caused a record amount of damage as a consequence of that. Starting off with "it set these records" is putting the cart in front of the horse - we should first explain what it was and what damage it did, because that is what made it notable, and then note the record afterwards. When someone is looking up Hurricane Harvey, the first thing they're going to want to know is "Why was this important?" and the answer is "Because it caused massive damage by flooding Houston." Titanium Dragon (talk) 04:21, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

Except, the infobox to the right pretty much gives all the essential meteorological details such as being Category 4 and the page title makes readers know it was a hurricane. This is indicated much more prominently in tropical cyclone articles than in other disaster articles so the comparison with earthquakes and tsunamis is not valid. This practice is followed in nearly every tropical cyclone article I have read, including a few good articles.--Jasper Deng (talk) 05:19, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

Personally, I agree with Jasper as stating that Harvey was a Category 4 hurricane kind of undermines the introduction. I mean, for Hurricane Michael, we start off with its intensity records and damage statistics, so why shouldn't Harvey be the same? We should probably do the same with Katrina, which had its introduction edited too. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JoeMT615 (talk • contribs) 03:17, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

198 billion in damage?

this states that 198 billion dollars of damage was cost, well over that of Katrina. This source is also used in the article for Texas. Alex of Canada (talk) 19:43, 18 October 2018 (UTC)

Except, those estimates for Harvey (nor their estimates for Katrina -- $158−194 Billion -- have not been accepted yet by either the National Hurricane Center or the World Meteorological Organization, both who records the official estimates of both storms as $125 Billion.--Halls4521 (talk) 09:16, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

According to this site, Harvey is the 2nd costliest hurricane, not tied with Katrina for the first. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/dcmi.pdf 2601:343:8100:A526:8CCF:438D:1B8C:58B1 (talk) 21:20, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

I agree, but the information cannot be edited without forehand consensus. MasterOpel 21:46, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

Effects of Hurricane Harvey in Texas

@Destroyeraa, Jasper Deng, SMB99thx, Chicdat, I like hurricanes, Jdcomix, HurricaneTracker495, Hurricanehink, and TropicalAnalystwx13: I recently completed work on the long overdue Effects of Hurricane Harvey in Texas article. Can I get some help trimming this main article down, since the content will be in the other one?ChessEric (talk · contribs) 00:37, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

First let’s move the article to main space ChessEric. Then, I guess other people could, but I won’t be helping(I have other things to do). HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 00:54, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

One quick note before you publish - be sure to get a damage figure just for Texas. The $125 billion is for the entire United States. ♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 00:55, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

@Hurricanehink: I've literally been looking all day for a Texas damage figure and can't find one. Can you help with that?ChessEric (talk · contribs) 01:13, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

NCDC has $41 billion. This source has $27B for Harris and Galveston counties. Insured damage in the state was $20 billion. Considering Louisiana damage was around $75 million per NCDC, it's likely most of the $125B occurred in Texas, but I'd still like a more reliable damage total, someone saying that with confidence (and not an estimate immediately after the storm). This site, for instance, mentions a $180 Billion damage total in Texas, but that's an overestimate. The same source indicated Texas Governor Abbott requested $61 billion in recovery funds. This source from Texas A&M says $125B in damage occurred in Texas, which cited this news report that mentions the US damage total at $125B (and not Texas specifically). So that's what I got. ♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 01:47, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

@Hurricanehink: I think I'll go with the NCDC report for now. I use that for my tornado articles, so I see no problems with doing that here.ChessEric (talk · contribs) 22:22, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

@ChessEric:-whats more reliable, something that may be off by like, a billion dollars at most, or something that is likely only 1/3 of the damage it did in Texas. Why not $124.925 billion(which subtracts the $75 million from louisiana). HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 23:30, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

@HurricaneTracker495: Effects weren't just felt in Texas and Louisiana, but in many other states and countries. The damage was just maximized in Texas and Louisiana.ChessEric (talk · contribs) 23:44, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

@ChessEric: this site claims it's at least $100 billion. I'll look for more tomorrow. --HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 23:51, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

@HurricaneTracker495: (1) That estimate is in the caption of a picture and (2) it says the damage in Texas COULD exceed $100 billion. Going to stick with the other estimate for now.ChessEric (talk · contribs) 00:06, 21 November 2020 (UTC)

Hurricane Harvey was the costliest tropical cyclone on record (tied with Hurricane Katrina of 2005), inflicting roughly $125 billion in damage across the Houston metropolitan area and Southeast Texas. from our MH article. --HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 00:27, 21 November 2020 (UTC)

Edit request for "Impacts in the United States/houston metropolitan area flooding"

The video that is included with this subsection is of a rescue in Beaumont, Texas. Beaumont is not in the Houston metropolitan area either in the vernacular, or in the linked metropolitan statistical area. Beaumont is further to the east than the easternmost counties of the area (Chambers/Liberty), outside the counties included in the broad Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land-Baytown MSA (which is linked and can be referenced, with map), and certainly outside what people would commonly refer to as the metro area. Can someone please replace this with a picture from the actual Houston area flooding? There are innumerable images, I am sure. It's a nice video, it just doesn't belong in this subsection.12.11.127.253 (talk) 20:46, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Hello IP editor--I've moved the video down to the section on Beaumont. You are correct that there are a lot of photos of the impacts of Harvey on the Houston area--there are so many, in fact, that I do not have a clue what to replace the video with. There are about 350 photos available at commons:Category:Effects of Hurricane Harvey in Houston. If you see a photo in that category that you'd like to use in this article, I'll be happy to add it in for you. Aoi (青い) (talk) 20:55, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 October 2023

Please add Burners Without Borders,a non profit associated with Burning Man, spent September, October and parts of November doing volunteer clean up work with over 100 volunteers some staying for a full month. They were located on the western edge of Harvey's landfall helping mostly the elderly and handicapped removing debris and clearing damaged trees. There work saved these people who could not afford the expense several hundred thousand dollars. 2600:1700:2F01:9CF0:C5BD:8CD7:42EC:2082 (talk) 22:30, 26 October 2023 (UTC) I was there for a full month doing physical labor and saw this.

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Cannolis (talk) 02:02, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 16 September 2024

Can the Texas section at Hurricane Harvey#Impacts in the United States please be trimmed due to the sub article with Effects of Hurricane Harvey in Texas, similar to this edit to Hurricane Ian? 104.246.112.81 (talk) 18:40, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

 Done _ZZ^Z'S 19:36, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Death toll - 104 or 107

I have struggled to verify that the death toll is 107 as listed. A recent USA Today article says that "Only eight hurricanes have killed more than 100 people since 1950, the last time a storm as deadly as Helene hit the US came in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Houston and was blamed for 103 deaths." That would make 104 when counting the death of the pregnant woman in the village of Jawalla in Guyana.

At the bottom of that article, the word Harvey is linked to this NOAA Tropical Cyclone Report (TCR) that says on page eight: "Harvey is responsible for at least 68 direct deaths⁴ in the United States, all in Texas. Over half of the deaths (36) were in Harris County in the Houston metro area. A county-by-county listing of the direct deaths is available in Table 4. (...) About 35 additional deaths are ascribed to indirect causes, such as electrocution, motor-vehicle crashes and isolation from necessary medical services. Four people were reported injured by a tornado north of Reform, Alabama." 68 direct deaths plus 35 additional deaths would be 103 deaths.

There is still a catch here. CooperScience edited the article in March 2018 to change the total number of deaths to 107 per a United States WMO report. This report might be after the NOAA TCR which was originally published in January 2018 per a footnote in the report. Additionally, in the edit revision above, a hidden note that no longer exists in the article says <!-- 1 in Guyana, 103 in the US per TCR, +4 indirect not mentioned in TCR--> is included. (As an aside, I have only noticed this while typing this discussion as "Who Wrote That" cannot find or see when hidden notes are in the infobox.) The problem is that I cannot find this report nor does it seem to be linked in the article. A Google search for site:wmo.int Hurricane Harvey report didn't bring it up, nor did Bing. I am hoping that posting this will help to either find the WMO report and verify what it says or otherwise confirm what the death toll was. --Super Goku V (talk) 08:03, 1 October 2024 (UTC)