A year ago this weekend, Hurricane Harvey came ashore, roaring into Texas and Louisiana. Trapped between weather systems, Harvey sat in place over Southeast Texas for days, dumping trillions of gallons of rain and spawning unprecedented flooding. Harvey set the record as the wettest tropical cyclone ever to hit the contiguous United States, and tied with Katrina as one of the costliest tropical cyclones in history. More than 75 people died in Texas, and billions of dollars in damages were incurred. Today, the Associated Press reports that “although many Texas families are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Harvey … daily life has mostly returned to normal in many of the hardest hit communities.” See also reporting from our own Elaina Plott, who spent time with the current and former mayors of Houston, finding out why Hurricane Harvey is Houston’s unending nightmare.
A Look Back at Hurricane Harvey: One Year Since Landfall
-
-
-
People catch a ride on a construction vehicle down a flooded street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Houston on August 28, 2017. #
Joe Raedle / Getty -
-
A child is helped off the back of a rescue truck after his family evacuated their home after it was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Houston on August 28, 2017. #
Joe Raedle / Getty -
-
A rescue helicopter hovers in the background as a woman and her poodle use an air mattress to float above floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey while waiting to be rescued from Scarsdale Boulevard in Houston on August 27, 2017. #
Adrees Latif / Reuters -
-
-
A submerged pickup truck remains in a neighborhood which was flooded when the Barker Reservoir reached capacity in the aftermath of Harvey on September 2, 2017, in Katy, Texas. #
Charlie Riedel / AP -
Vehicles sit amid leaked fuel mixed in with floodwaters caused by Tropical Storm Harvey, in the parking lot of Motiva Enterprises LLC in Port Arthur, Texas, on August 31, 2017. #
Adrees Latif / Reuters -
-
Senior Airman Austin Hellweg, the 129th Rescue Squadron special-missions aviator, carries a dog and leads a family into an HH-60 Pave Hawk for extraction to a safer location during the relief effort for Hurricane Harvey in Beaumont, Texas, on August 31, 2017. #
Staff Sgt. Jordan Castelan / USAF via Getty -
Frances Breaux cries as she talks about her fears for two close friends who live near the Arkema Inc. chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, on August 31, 2017. The Houston-area chemical plant that lost power after Harvey engulfed the area in extensive floods was rocked by multiple explosions. #
Gregory Bull / AP -
-
A U.S. Air Force pararescueman from the 106th Rescue Wing, New York Air National Guard, carries a young girl to the safety of a HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter over floodwaters in Houston on September 1, 2017. #
Senior Airman Joshua Hoskins / USAF / Reuters -
The marine veteran Jeremy Reed with the Wounded Veterans of Oklahoma helps to rescue horses from floodwater after torrential rains pounded Southeast Texas, on September 2, 2017, in Orange, Texas. #
Scott Olson / Getty -
-
Matthew Koser looks for important papers and heirlooms inside his grandfather's house after it was flooded by heavy rains from Hurricane Harvey on August 29, 2017, in the Bear Creek neighborhood of west Houston. The neighborhood flooded after water was released from nearby Addicks Reservoir. #
Erich Schlegel / Getty -
Members of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Louisiana National Guard help rescue elderly people from the flooded Golden Years Assisted Living home in Orange, Texas, on August 30, 2017. #
Gerald Herbert / AP -
-
-
A man walks past debris from homes on his street damaged in flooding from Hurricane Harvey as an oil refinery stands in the background in Port Arthur, Texas, on September 28, 2017. #
David Goldman / AP -
-
In this August 9, 2018 photo, Shirley Paley, foreground right, receives a hug from Keith Downey inside her home, which was damaged during Hurricane Harvey in Houston. Paley hopes to move back into her home soon. #
David J. Phillip / AP
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.