Harvey’s deluge killed dozens and caused billions in damage

HOUSTON — Hurricane Harvey slammed into Texas last August as a powerful Category 4 storm, killing dozens of people and causing billions of dollars in damage. Though its fiercest winds quickly dissipated, the storm hovered for days as it trudged inland, dumping several feet of rain on many Gulf Coast communities and the Houston area.

Here are more figures about Harvey:

DEATH AND DESTRUCTION

Harvey killed 68 people, making it the deadliest U.S. storm since Superstorm Sandy in 2012, which killed 72, according to a National Hurricane Center report .

All but three of the Harvey deaths were directly attributed to freshwater flooding, which damaged more than 300,000 structures and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage, federal statistics show. Several oil and gas refineries were knocked offline for days, which raised U.S. gasoline prices, the report states.

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Adjusting for inflation, Harvey was the second costliest tropical cyclone in U.S. history, trailing only Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to the hurricane centre report.

WIND AND RAINFALL

When Harvey made landfall in Rockford, near Corpus Christi, on Aug. 25, 2017, it was the first storm since 2004 to come ashore as a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum winds of 133 mph (213 kph).

Nederland, a city about 90 miles (145 kilometres) east of Houston near the Louisiana border, received 60.58 inches (1.54 metres) of rain during Harvey, which broke the U.S. record set by Hurricane Hiki in Hawaii in 1950.

Much of the Houston metropolitan area, which is home to more than 6 million people, was deluged with 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.22 metres) of rain.

Although Texas bore the brunt of the storm, Vinton, Louisiana, received slightly less than 2 feet (0.61 metre) of rain and Harvey’s remnants continued to dump rain as they moved farther inland, dropping about 1 foot (0.3 metre) in Robertson County, Tennessee.

The Associated Press