Hurricane Harvey Infrastructure Resilience Investigation

Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane that hit the Texas coastline on August 25, 2017, is the most significant tropical cyclone rainfall event in the United States history since reliable records began around the 1880s. Tied with Hurricane Katrina as the costliest tropical storm, Harvey’s damage was calculated to be approximately of $125 billion USD, according to the latest NOAA estimate. The catastrophic damages included more than 300,000 structures and up to half a million cars. The extraordinary rainfall that fell over Houston Metropolitan Area caused about 40,000 flood victims to evacuate due to the widespread flooding of homes and businesses. Floodwaters inundated major roads such as I-10, I-45, and US-59. Record water levels were observed on Buffalo Bayou, Clear Creek, Dickinson Bayou and Cypress Creek. This investigation was initiated by the Infrastructure Resilience Division (IRD) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey to document resilience performance of lifeline infrastructure and lessons learned. The following pages focus on the major affected sectors. In each, a brief description of the sector is followed by an overview of the capacities and total scopes, such as production and existing infrastructure. Furthermore, a detailed count of the recorded and estimated damages and a summary of the recovery and rebuilding efforts is provided.