Hurricane Harvey heralds the ‘new normal’

The TU Delft has had ties with the Houston region and A&M and Rice Universities since 2012. Two years ago, Delft researchers presented an adapted version of the Dutch Delta waterworks to protect the Galveston Bay area from hurricane-related flooding. Now that the flooding came from extreme rain instead of from the Gulf, it only seemed logical that TU Delft researchers set up a Harvey research team in early September. The initiative was supported by DIMI (Deltas, Infrastructures & Mobility Initiative) and the Delft Safety & Security Institute (DSyS).

Six weeks of 24/7 work later, four researchers presented the preliminary Harvey Hurricane Report last Thursday. Dr Antonia Sebastian showed what flood management systems are already operational in Houston. The city is continuing to grow, making it more vulnerable to extreme weather events. Kasper Lendering presented an inventory of the damage. Over 100,000 homes have been affected, and half a million cars were drowned. The total damage is estimated at 150 billion dollars, making Harvey one of the top-five most costly natural disasters in the US. Nikki Brand analysed the urban fabric and land use policies. She concluded that Houston, the monster that ate Texas, does very little spatial planning and zoning. As a result, the urban sprawl spreads into areas that are prone to flooding. Baukje Kothuis presented the results of the Harvey hackathon in which 80 students worked in 2-hour blocks on 15 topics to get data from all available online sources on Harvey’s impact. They assembled the results in maps and a timeline.

On the other hand, Americans are more self-reliant, and they take measures to minimise the damage to their homes if the water rises. Plus, unlike during Katrina, disaster relief was well organised. Disaster response in the US seems readier for action than in the Netherlands where people are hardly aware of any danger living below the sea-level and don’t prepare for emergencies.