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> Hurricane Ike was a cat2 in 2008, which did significant damage to the Houston coast because of its large storm surge. > Harvey in 2017 was damaging due to it

> Hurricane Ike was a cat2 in 2008, which did significant damage to the Houston coast because of its large storm surge. > Harvey in 2017 was damaging due to its consistent rain over the area as it stalled. The outsider impression that I took away was that a major reason why Houston got so rekt by a mere Cat 2 hurricane was in large part driven by property developers building communities in low lying areas that the Army Corp of Engineers had designated as "emergency spillways"[1][2]...the Army knew about the risk, the city turned a blind eye, and the devil in the details weren't disclosed to homebuyers. Perhaps there's more to the story? > While I'm not against a cat 6 or higher rating existing, for the sake of human communication "cat 5" means "get the hell out of there" already. I agree, but skipping town isn't always an option even if you wanted to; experienced two such events[3][4] on Guam as a kid. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/22/us/houston-harvey-flooding-reservoir.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/22/us/houston-ha... [2] https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2021/how-houston-floods/ https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/2021/how-houston-f... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Omar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Omar [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Paka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Paka

unethical_ban 3y ago
On the first point, you're correct about Harvey. Several neighborhoods were built in the basin of a flood plain. And lesser examples of such poor planning and drainage are all over Houston. But sometimes it really is storms that stall over the city dropping rain for three days. To the second point, yeah... My family tried to evac Rita (2005) and got 5 miles in three hours. Turned around, and the storm missed us. Three years later, my parents stayed for "cat 2" Ike and were trapped in the attic for 12 hours because Galveston Bay had come five feet up our house.

unethical_ban 3y ago

On the first point, you're correct about Harvey. Several neighborhoods were built in the basin of a flood plain. And lesser examples of such poor planning and drainage are all over Houston. But sometimes it really is storms that stall over the city dropping rain for three days. To the second point, yeah... My family tried to evac Rita (2005) and got 5 miles in three hours. Turned around, and the storm missed us. Three years later, my parents stayed for "cat 2" Ike and were trapped in the attic for 12 hours because Galveston Bay had come five feet up our house.