On August 17, 2017, Tropical Storm Harvey formed, becoming the first major hurricane of the season more than a week later, threatening Texas and parts of central America. Just before Harvey became a post-tropical cyclone, Tropical Storm Irma formed, becoming the first Category 5 hurricane of the season. This storm threatened the Caribbean and the state of Florida in its path. After a week from Irma making landfall on Florida, Tropical Storm Maria formed, threatening the Caribbean again, becoming the strongest storm in the season.
These storms have left many people gone in its wakes. For those that were fortunate enough to evacuate or stay in shelters, they have returned. For most people, their homes have been destroyed, and for some very unfortunate people, their homes must be rebuilt from the bottom up. These people may be very unfortunate, but they are making progress. Because of generous, helpful people, they have continued to keep working because of these generous people donating and offering assistance to those people.
Below, you will read about these three devastating hurricanes, and what is being done so far in places where it has been hit the hardest.
Hurricane Harvey
For the first week of its existence, Harvey was merely a minor tropical storm. On August 23, Harvey started strengthening over the Gulf of Mexico. On August 25, Hurricane Harvey became a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds up to 130 miles per hour. Later that night, Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas. This major hurricane stalled over Texas for 5 days, rapidly downgrading back to a tropical depression, but causing major flooding and damage over Southeastern Texas towns and cities like Corpus Christi and Houston. The storm finally moved out on August 30, then heading northeast and finally becoming a post-tropical cyclone on September 1.
Hurricane Harvey has broken a lot of records. Harvey became the first major hurricane to make landfall since Hurricane Wilma struck Florida in 2005. It also broke records for the most amount of rainfall in the United States, with the maximum rainfall reading of 60.58 inches of rainfall near Nederland, Texas, 10 miles from Beaumont, Texas. In Houston, almost 45 inches of rain fell on the city during Harvey’s stalling.
In Texas, there are some places that have recovered, but there are a good number of people who still haven’t gotten all the help they need. Almost all public services have been re-opened, but in some very hard-hit places, this has not happened yet. To help, people from mainly the United States have helped to donate to people affected by Harvey.
Hurricane Irma
On August 30, Tropical Storm Irma was named, following a track toward the Caribbean. On September 6, Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph sustained winds, slammed the Caribbean with torrential rain and fast winds. Hurricane Irma sustained that wind speed for 37 hours, a record for the longest time of the same wind speed. Before Irma made landfall on September 10 in Florida, it had weakened to a Category 3 storm, and made a hard north turn straight towards the state, and then strengthened back to a Category 4 hurricane. After crossing Florida from south to north, it became a post-tropical cyclone on September 12.
Hurricane Irma had the highest sustained wind speed of any hurricane in the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season. It also had the second highest sustained wind speed ever in the Atlantic, before Hurricane Allen in 1980, which had a sustained wind speed of 190 mph. Also, Irma was a hurricane with two other Atlantic hurricanes, Hurricanes Jose and Katia, which never happened since 2010. Finally, Hurricane Irma marks the first time since hurricanes were started to be recorded when two major hurricanes have hit the United States in one hurricane season.
In Florida, cleanup efforts are very hard to compare with Harvey victims. Even though Texas suffered major flooding, Florida suffered high-speed winds. Wind damage was the major part of this hurricane. Wind blew down trees and power lines, and some trees that fell managed to smash homes. Since Irma went through the state in one day, not as much rain and flooding damage was made, but there was some places that did get hit badly by other ways, especially people in the Keys, like Key West and Marathon, Florida. The cleanup for some went by quickly, because they had heard about the impacts of Harvey on Texas, so they knew to prepare. Help is still being offered to those impacted by Irma.
Hurricane Maria
Four days after Irma became a post-tropical cyclone over the southeastern United States, Tropical Storm Maria formed in the Atlantic. 3 days after its naming, Maria became a Category 5 hurricane, slamming the Southern Leeward Islands with 175 mph winds. Soon after, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane. Later, Hurricane Maria weakened a little more as it hit the eastern parts of the Bahamas. On October 3, Maria became a post-tropical cyclone near Newfoundland, Canada, after a long north run away from the East Coast of the United States.
Hurricane Maria is regarded as one of the worst hurricanes to ever hit that location. In fact, according to the pressure of the storm, Hurricane Maria had the lowest pressure, according to the number of millibars, in the hurricane season, with its lowest pressure measured at 909 millibars. It is also in the top 10 strongest Atlantic hurricanes according to pressure. Another new inclusion relating to Hurricane Maria was that it is only one of 6 Atlantic hurricane seasons that have seen two Category 5 hurricanes, joining the 1932, 1933, 1961, 2005, and 2007 hurricane seasons.
For everyone in the Caribbean, they have gotten the worst part of the hurricane. To add to that, they have got the worst part of two close-together-in-time hurricanes. Just two weeks before Hurricane Maria struck the Caribbean, Hurricane Irma had hit almost the same places. These places are the places where the people have been affected the most, because when you combine the hurricane with the highest wind speeds with another hurricane that has the strongest capability to destruct whole towns and cities a couple of weeks later, it is total tragedy. Barely anyone could even get started with rebuilding after Irma when they evacuated from their homes again due to Maria.
Help from Maria (and Irma) has come from not just the United States, but from places around the world. France and the United Kingdom have claimed land in the Caribbean, and people from those countries’ mainland is helping out. Like those two countries, the United States is doing the same thing because of Puerto Rico. So far, progress has been steady, but hard. Even though things like cell service and potable water has almost been fully recovered, some things need serious work. Power is one of them, with only about half of Puerto Rico’s power working. But, for many states in the United States, they have sent troopers and other helpers to report and help those that are still in need. There are still many people at various places dispatched to help.
The long road to fully recovering is going to be extremely long for many people. Even though some people in the government from places that were hit are saying that they will fully recover in a shorter time, some other people in the government are saying that it will take much longer than that. It is almost a definite thing that another hurricane next year could possibly hit the same places that these three hurricanes have hit this season, ruining a year of hard and tiresome work.
Help is the one thing that all of these people request from people around the world. They need assistance so that they can keep building back their lives. Everyone in the world is capable of offering help. If you would like to give assistance to those that were affected, you can donate food, water, or other essential appliances that people need to donation drives.
If you would like to donate money to not just the victims of these three hurricanes, but to every person around the world still needing help from natural disasters from this year and years past, please take a few minutes of your time and visit one of a number of places to donate to hurricane relief. I would suggest this website: https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation, and choose “Disaster Relief” under the “I Want to Support” drop-down.
Sources:
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/tropical-storm-harvey-forecast-texas-louisiana-arkansas
Grover Middle School's Jagazine 