{"id":18433,"date":"2018-02-21T14:36:59","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T19:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=18433"},"modified":"2026-03-14T13:20:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T18:20:56","slug":"hurricane-harvey-climate-change-staggering-costs-and-people-at-the-heart-of-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2018\/02\/21\/hurricane-harvey-climate-change-staggering-costs-and-people-at-the-heart-of-it-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Harvey: Climate change, staggering costs, and people at the heart of it all"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texans are no stranger to the devastation of hurricanes. I still vividly remember, as a young child in Austin, being scared of Alicia in 1983 \u2013 and thankful that we lived at the top of the hill. Alicia caused nearly $2 billion<\/a> in damages, a record at the time, and the category 3 storm was so destructive that its name was retired. But only a few years later, that record was broken in Texas by Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 ($5 billion<\/a>), Hurricane Rita in 2005 ($24 billion<\/a>), and Hurricane Ike in 2008 ($35 billion).<\/p>\n

In fact, of the top ten costliest hurricanes<\/a> of all time in the U.S., nine have been since 2004, and half have been in the past five years. Houston alone has endured three 500-year floods in the past three years. Each of these storms was devastating in its own right, but Harvey brought destruction to a new level.<\/p>\n

As a native Texan, this is not the normal I knew. And for those outside Texas, think of the magnitude: You could fit the cities<\/a> of Boston, Chicago, Manhattan, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Washington, D.C. into the geographical area of Houston. So how does Hurricane Harvey fit into the new normal? Here are three things we know for certain.<\/p>\n

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  1. Climate change increased the intensity and likelihood of the storm<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    2017 was a devastating year<\/a> of natural disasters, by any measure, from wildfires in several western states to intense heatwaves in the Southwest to Harvey, followed closely by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Thanks to the improvement in climate models<\/a>, scientists are now better equipped to attribute climate change effects to individual natural disasters.<\/p>\n

    A recent study<\/a> by hurricane experts in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences found that Harvey\u2019s unprecedented 51 inches of rainfall in the Houston area, as well as wind speeds in other parts of the state, were three times more likely and 15 percent more intense than without climate change. The study even called the rainfall \u201cbiblical\u201d \u2013 as in, it has likely occurred only once since the time the Old Testament was written.<\/p>\n

    In Texas now, the odds of another Harvey-like rainfall could be nearly 1 in 5<\/a> per year by 2100 \u2013 put another way, rain of this magnitude could hit the state 18 times more often by the end of the century. Storms that have more than 20 inches of rain in Texas are about six times more likely now than they were at the end of the 20th<\/sup> century, just 18 years ago.<\/p>\n

    Climate change did not cause<\/em> Hurricane Harvey, but it certainly made its impact much worse. Like an athlete on steroids, climate change enhances the performance of an already powerful force.<\/p>\n

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    1. The costs are and will continue to be enormous<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric\u00a0Association (NOAA), the costs from all the 2017 natural disasters clock in at $306 billion<\/a> \u2013 and Harvey comes out on top at $125 billion. Not only is that figure staggering on its face, but if the political leadership continues to go forward as business as usual, the costs of inaction will dwarf these.<\/p>\n

      Furthermore, these official numbers do not include things like economic impacts in the community, health costs from air and water pollution, mental health costs from the trauma of natural disasters, and repeatedly continuing to rebuild.<\/p>\n

      Beyond what\u2019s traditionally reported \u2013 mainly about homes and businesses \u2013 a lot of sectors of the economy were affected by Harvey, such as:<\/p>\n