TEXAS HURRICANE HARVEY UPDATE HOUSTON & COASTAL BEND DISASTER PROFILE
(OCTOBER 2018)
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017, near Rockport, TX as a category 4 Hurricane with a record 52" of rain and 130-mph winds. It led 41 counties in Southeast Texas to be designated as federal disaster areas; one third of Houston was completely flooded. An estimated 136,000 homes were damaged in Harris County (Houston) alone. Additionally, the Coastal Bend region was hit especially hard, with an estimated 39,927 damaged structures totaling $4.5 billion. Damage in this region was even more varied than in Houston - not only were homes affected by storm surge and rising waters, but the high speed winds damaged many trees and roofs. This caused top-down water damage, debris and tree hazards, and led to long-term struggles to keep homes dry. OUR WORK Thanks to critical support from donors, partners, and volunteers from around the world, All Hands and Hearts – Smart Response was able to complete impactful 16 and 18-week programs across the Coastal Bend and Harris County regions, respectively. Our teams responded to the cry for help with gutting and mold sanitizing homes. Between the two programs we were able to complete: 310 muck/gut jobs and 103 sanitation jobs, facilitating 2,074 volunteers and providing assistance to 1,374 people. Teams were also able to remove trees from 77 sites, and debris from 105 sites in the Coastal Bend region. CURRENT ACTIVITIES (RECOVERY PHASE) As we continue response work (mucking, gutting and sanitizing homes), we are also rebuilding homes in northeast Houston and the Coastal Bend. In this phase, we complete 7 home rebuilds/month. Volunteers travel to job sites each morning at 7AM and return each evening to our base for a nightly meeting recapping the day. With 30 volunteers in Texas, over 40 nationalities have been represented since January. Thanks to support from our partners at TUMI, we also completed our first ever domestic school rebuild at the Rhodes School for the Performing Arts. We made a 3-year commitment to help Texas recover and we aren’t slowing down anytime soon.