Hurricane Harvey Case Study
Recent global natural disasters have impacted many people around the world but one in particular has left the city of Huston Texas utterly devastated. A few weeks ago the most powerful hurricane to date hovered over downtown Huston dumping over 50 inches of rainfall in just 72 hours. This disaster is still unraveling in Huston and understanding what and why this disaster happened is how anthropologist’s plan on helping. There are four components that help anthropologists understand hazards, disasters and human experiences. The first component is the material or objective event, in this case Hurricane Harvey that was a category five storm at its peak. The next component is the social, cultural and economic context in which contributes to the
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The first component is the Material and objective disaster that has occurred, and is Hurricane Harvey. The second are the social, cultural and subjective conditions that have combined to produce the disaster. Hurricane Harvey’s devastation is without precedent, as trillions of gallons of water drown the Huston area. Residents can’t get on the freeways and go anywhere, homes and buildings are in ruins, tens of thousands of people are displaced, and the death toll is rising as well as the economic toll. Despite Harvey dumping record rain fall, this part of the country floods naturally. Huston is located on the Gulf coastal plane. The coastal prairies and the wetlands were here before Huston built its city and everything that was here before was built to naturally flood. One problem is Huston is mainly flat and its mostly marshland that’s barley above sea level. Rapid urban development hasn’t helped as the city paved over the habitats that soak up floodwaters. A Huston resident is quoted in the The New York Times saying that “there’s nowhere for this water to go other than to flood our homes and communities.” Climate change isn’t helping either. Sea surface temperatures have warmed on average by 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last few decades. This impacts Huston since higher evaporation rates means more water in the atmosphere and its got to go somewhere, so you get torrential
The first component is the Material and objective disaster that has occurred, and is Hurricane Harvey. The second are the social, cultural and subjective conditions that have combined to produce the disaster. Hurricane Harvey’s devastation is without precedent, as trillions of gallons of water drown the Huston area. Residents can’t get on the freeways and go anywhere, homes and buildings are in ruins, tens of thousands of people are displaced, and the death toll is rising as well as the economic toll. Despite Harvey dumping record rain fall, this part of the country floods naturally. Huston is located on the Gulf coastal plane. The coastal prairies and the wetlands were here before Huston built its city and everything that was here before was built to naturally flood. One problem is Huston is mainly flat and its mostly marshland that’s barley above sea level. Rapid urban development hasn’t helped as the city paved over the habitats that soak up floodwaters. A Huston resident is quoted in the The New York Times saying that “there’s nowhere for this water to go other than to flood our homes and communities.” Climate change isn’t helping either. Sea surface temperatures have warmed on average by 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last few decades. This impacts Huston since higher evaporation rates means more water in the atmosphere and its got to go somewhere, so you get torrential