Healthcare Report: Hurricane Harvey's Impact on Healthcare Systems

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the public health consequences of Hurricane Harvey, a category 4 storm that struck Texas in 2017. It details the storm's impact on healthcare infrastructure, including the loss of life, injuries, and the spread of diseases due to contaminated water and flooding. The report examines the roles of federal and local governments in disaster response, including the provision of medical assistance, food, and emergency funding. It also highlights the issues and challenges faced during the disaster, such as transportation disruptions, equipment damage, and funding shortages. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of public health infrastructure and preparedness in mitigating the impact of such natural disasters, offering insights into the long-term effects on the health of people. This report is available on Desklib, a platform offering past papers and solved assignments for students.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Impacts of Hurricane Harvey.................................................................................................................2
Role of Federal and Local Government.................................................................................................3
Impacts..................................................................................................................................................4
Issues and Emergency Funding of Hurricane Harvey............................................................................5
Conclusions...........................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography...........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Hurricane Harvey is a category 4 storm that hit all the Texas on August 25, 2017. The
biggest natural disaster that affect more live and health of people in the United States is
Hurricane Harvey in the year 2017. It is originated with westward-moving of tropical waves
that come from Africa over its eastern Atlantic Ocean in August. It caused 125 billion in
number damage which is stated as a National Hurricane center in the United States. Texas
governor named as Greg Abbott asked for more of the 125 billion in federal relief. Harvey
made landfall in three times in all over its six days. The peak time on September 1, 2017, has
a major one-third of its Houston been in underwater. Hurricane Harvey impacted due to its
main powers and locations. Hurricane Harvey has made on impact with the landfall in
between Port Aransas and the category that has mentioned is 4 Storm with winds of 130 mph.
the major storm is passing with its pounding in the Texas coast and hurricane forces to knock
down the trees. Torrential rains with its deluging streets. It has continued to intensify today
with a move towards the Texas Coast (AMADEO, 2019).
Impacts of Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey is a natural disaster that impacts public health and it extends
beyond flooding in the United States. The people died in huge numbers and most of the
people have been injured with the trapping in flooded houses. There is an immediate danger
which is posed by flooding and there is the recognition that the gravity of the situation in
Texas. Every flood disaster is a disaster that affects public health and its infrastructures with
the beginning of secondary calamity were on display in the nearby area in the Houston area.
This natural disaster affects public health and increases problems like health emergencies,
intensify outbreaks and environmental illness.

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Public health infrastructure should be considered with more priorities as they are the
one who affects more with natural disasters. With the rise in frequency and weather events
severities events like hurricanes that have a considerable impact on health. This directly
impacts the infrastructure of the public and flooding can cause drowning with serious injuries
sometimes. The excess amount of flood water links with higher exposure to ultimate diseases
due to contaminated drinking water and due to the spread of sewage water (Constible, 2018).
The historic rainfall has been dumped by Hurricane Harvey that led to deaths by
drowning and destruction of many homes in the United States. The infrastructure builds
beyond the concept of its allocations and directly impacts the management Administrations.
The tragic health with the death of a person impact on public health stories of Hurricane
Harvey. The floods have a complex array of threats and that will take to unravel them all in
Texas. The roads are blocked and there is a huge amount of sewage-tainted waters to flood
streets that show higher than lower levels of many fecel bacteria (Baragona, 2019).
The infrastructure is taking bad consequences on people and affects millions of
dollars in the surrounded regions. The natural disaster affects the countless homes, hospitals,
homes and critical infrastructures and they are all part of infrastructures that ruins the
development in the wrong way. Many areas of the state are inundated with the heavy number
of 40 inches of water during this natural disaster and lead to the displacement of more than
30000 people. With the immediate concern of citizens is repairing with these storms, looms
moving forward to protect themselves and resulting humanitarian disasters that accompany
extreme weather conditions (Public Health Impact Of Disasters, 2019).
Role of Federal and Local Government
Natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey are to be examined by hands-on deck
situation for the federal government. The agency of federal management is most familiar with

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the federal player in federal agencies from the US to the departments with the response to
Hurricane Florence and different natural disasters in the United States. Federal and Local
Government are used to assist by providing skilled services, medical assistance, and food to
all the people who are affecting this type of natural disasters. Effective planning is being
made to overcome these problems by taking strategic decisions that benefitted to all the
affected people.
TCEQ is more responsible for their continuation of its own business in emergencies
but assists in regulating beneficial facilities to the general public. The number of affected
people and pets are rescued in large quantities and manage to damage in extreme winds
conditions. Many government agencies conducted a plan with debris removal operations in
federal reimbursement that seeks site authorizations from TCEQ (Hurricane Harvey, 2017).
President Trump passes the biggest declarations that have more than the number of
federal agencies to assign support to all the people and get positive responses for recovery.
The volume of such applications is the highest in the overall industry and surging staff with
the security to assist in those traffic situations. The small business administrations have the
biggest source of government agencies and federal funds to rebuild the whole disaster
situations with low-interest loans, so homeowners and renters get benefitted from the same.
USAR teams come and meet with deploying Texas to the nation and mission was simply to
save the life of most of the people (Historic Disaster Response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas,
2017).
Impacts
Biological disaster is the effective natural disasters that involve disability, health
issues and this so due top microorganisms like different viruses or bacteria’s. Pandemic is an
effecting disease which is spread across the big regions that are continent with emerging or

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remerging diseases and these results in Swine Flu. The different toxic onslaught is largely
overshadowed by the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey as a first responder. The
different biological disasters are accessed by combinations of metabolic such as cortisol,
blood pressures (Biological Disaster, 2019).
The blood pressure is the main result when Hurricane Harvey disaster impacted and
comes over in the United States. The impact of Hurricane Harvey had dumped estimation on
Texas and this is one of the most damaging disasters in the history of U.S. The economic
impact results that it is the heaviest storm that surpassing Hurricane Katrina. The second
reason may be rain and flooding estimation cost in the sheer amount of Storm and sets as
cyclone rainfall in the U.S over many past years (2019).
Issues and Emergency Funding of Hurricane Harvey
There are various issues which are involved in Hurricane Harvey disaster as it is the
natural disaster that impacted the life of a person and public infrastructure too. Animal
carcass issues are the severe issues which are being faced by people. The less amount of
water and some software issues are being observed and they are most relatable to water
problems with lack of scarcity. The number of the groups has most of the managerial issues
with its workgroup and with the system of operating procedures, these issues are being
resolved. Transportation issues which are related to railway, trucks are severely disrupted
until sometime as chemical plants were unable to direct the shipments of raw materials
(Cassiday, 2018).
There is damage to equipment’s and that cannot be detected until the restart process is
achieved. Due to transportation issues, spare parts and obtaining chemicals had problems for
at least 10 days after the storm has passed. There are hydro generation, generation fuel, and
voltage support issue connected with this natural disaster. Multiple entities had to suffer from

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loss of telemetry and ICCP data during the storm had passed. This is due to extended remote
terminals at all the substations with the loss of battery backup powers for service outages
(Patrick, 2018).
Transportation secretary who is named as Elaine Chao directs the components of
federal highway administration with its immediate release in funds that start to restore roads
and many highways that are all damaged by this natural disaster. The new legislation is
signed into law that provided tax relief for Texans which affect ted by Hurricane Harvey. The
Red Cross includes the major values of goods donated in critical conditions to benefit
Hurricane Harvey survivors in Texas. These funds will be consumed to provide financial
assistance to lower households which require help and there are various communities also
that provide grants for community-based security services (EMERGENCY RELIEF FUNDS,
2017).
Conclusions
The essay focuses on the concept of real natural disaster that happened in United
States in last two consecutive years. The essay tells about the way that Hurricane Harvey
impacts the public health infrastructures and how local government agencies helps with
positive responds to this natural disasters that happened in August. The role of federal
government also plays an effective and important role in well-being of all the people who are
affected by this. There are various issues which are faced by people due to this natural
disaster in United States. The combination of all these factors and how it impact the health of
all the people are been discussed thoroughly.
Bibliography

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Federal Government Continues Response to Hurricane Harvey. (2017). Retrieved July 15, 2019, from
FEMA: https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2017/09/01/federal-government-continues-
response-hurricane-harvey
FUNDING: FHWA PROVIDES EMERGENCY RELIEF FUNDS FOR HURRICANE HARVEY INFRASTRUCTURE
REPAIRS. (2017). Retrieved July 15, 2019, from Road Bridges:
https://www.roadsbridges.com/funding-fhwa-provides-emergency-relief-funds-hurricane-
harvey-infrastructure-repairs
Historic Disaster Response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas. (2017). Retrieved July 15, 2019, from FEMA:
https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2017/09/22/historic-disaster-response-hurricane-
harvey-texas
Hurricane Harvey. (2017). Retrieved 2019 July, 2019, from Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/assets/public/response/hurricanes/hurricane-harvey-
after-action-review-report.pdf
Biological Disaster. (2019). Retrieved July 16, 2019, from NDMA:
https://ndma.gov.in/kids/biologicaldisaster.html
Hurricane Harvey. (2019). Retrieved July 15, 2019, from TCEQ:
https://www.tceq.texas.gov/assets/public/response/hurricanes/hurricane-harvey-after-
action-review-report.pdf
Public Health Impact Of Disasters. (2019). Retrieved July 15, 2019, from EIRD:
https://www.eird.org/isdr-biblio/PDF/Public%20health%20impact%20of%20disasters.pdf
The health dangers from Hurricane Harvey’s floods and Houston’s chemical plants. (2019). Retrieved
July 15, 2019, from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-
health/wp/2017/08/29/the-health-consequences-to-expect-from-hurricane-harveys-
floods/?utm_term=.f96350039f4a
AMADEO, K. (2019). Hurricane Harvey Facts, Damage and Costs. Retrieved July 16, 2019, from The
Balance: https://www.thebalance.com/hurricane-harvey-facts-damage-costs-4150087
Baragona, S. (2019). 2017 Most Expensive Year for US Natural Disasters. Retrieved July 15, 2019,
from VOA: https://www.voanews.com/usa/2017-most-expensive-year-us-natural-disasters
Cassiday, L. (2018). Lessons learned from Hurricane Harvey. Retrieved July 15, 2019, from AOCS :
https://www.aocs.org/stay-informed/inform-magazine/featured-articles/lessons-learned-
from-hurricane-harvey-march-2018
Constible, J. (2018). The Emerging Public Health Consequences of Hurricane Harvey. Retrieved July
15, 2019, from NRDC: https://www.nrdc.org/experts/juanita-constible/emerging-public-
health-consequences-hurricane-harvey
Patrick, C. B. (2018). Preparation, Response and Lessons Learned from Hurricane Harvey. Retrieved
July 17, 2019, from Journal of Emergency Medical Services:

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https://www.jems.com/articles/print/volume-43/issue-3/features/preparing-for-
catastrophe.html
Strong, J. (2017). Harvey Disaster Aid. Retrieved July 15, 2019, from United States Senator:
https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/content/page/hurricane-harvey-resources