Federal Response to Hurricane Harvey Disaster in Texas

Running head: FEDERAL RESPONSE TO THE DISASTER ‘HARVEY’
FEDERAL RESPONSE TO THE DISASTER ‘HARVEY’
Name of the Student
Course Name and Number
Instructor’s Name
Date of Submission:

1FEDERAL RESPONSE TO THE DISASTER ‘HARVEY’
Hurricane Harvey is one of the most disastrous event in the history of USA. Harvey
touched the USA soil near Rockport, Texas on 25th August, 2017(Ratnapradipa et al., 2018).
Harvey was a major category 4 hurricane (Ratnapradipa et al., 2018). The storm causes heavy
rainfall in Texas in the next week after landfall. Houston recorded 24 inch of rain in just 48
hours (Ratnapradipa et al., 2018). Along with that, Texas also observed record amount of
rainfall near clear creek which was 49.06 inch of rain (Ratnapradipa et al., 2018). This heavy
rainfall causes major flooding in the Texas state. Harvey caused very strong wind which
reached the speed of 130 mph (Ratnapradipa et al., 2018). Almost 136,000 structure were
flooded as a direct consequences of this and 38 people died as result of the storm
(Ratnapradipa et al., 2018). Owing to this, almost 780,000 people were evacuated and 692
emergency shelters were used to temporarily house 42,000 people (Ratnapradipa et al., 2018).
More than 100,000 Texans had at least 5 inch of water in their homes (Ratnapradipa et al.,
2018).
FEMA or Federal Emergency Management Agency had prepared for this storm and
pre- positioned personnel and supplies in Texas before the landfall of Harvey. FEMA joined
forces with local agencies, Texas Division of Emergency Management and other non- profit
organisations. Along with that, President Donald Trump has issued a declaration which
allows other federal agencies to joined forces with them. Almost 31,000 personnel were
deployed to help in rescue and recovery which included National Guard and FEMA
employees (Fema.gov, 2017). First responders to this emergency situation rescued almost
122,331 individuals excluding pets and animals (Fema.gov, 2017). This number does not
include the individuals and pets rescued by residents of Texas during this ghastly disaster.
The recovery and rescue response of Harvey was one of biggest and largest operation in the
history of FEMA. More than 1.5 billion US dollar were used to pay the affected Texans from
federal funds (Fema.gov, 2017). 571.8 million US dollar were allocated by FEMA for basic