Hurricane Harvey Aftermath - Houston still recovering after 1 week

Dear Steemit Friends,

I recently returned to Houston Texas to visit my parents. I wanted to share with you my first hand experience and some pictures of what it is really like in the city.

As most of you know, Houston was recently hit by Hurricane Harvey which delivered an unprecedented amount of wind and rain which resulted in the entire city virtually shutting down. It has been almost a week since the hurricane has passed and still many areas of the city are still shut down or inaccessible. Even though it has been virtually sunny and clear, flooding has slowly dissipated and several roads, subdivisions, and areas of the city are still under water causing a lot of difficulty navigating around the city.

In the map above from my GPS app, you will notice several areas still impacted from flooding (pink candy strip lines and hazard icons) and are closed and blocked off. As a result of the various closures, there are all kinds of detours that one must take to get to their destinations. In some cases, you can't even get to some places you might want to visit. I couldn't even visit one of my relatives since the area surrounding their neighborhood was flooded - like a mote protecting a castle. The above map is only a small sample of an even larger number of road closures and areas which are still impacted.

Some residences are just recently able to again access their own neighborhoods and houses to assess the damage and hopefully recover their belongings. Imagine the flooding being so bad that highways/overpasses were under water - simply amazing and sad at the same time.

Below are just some pictures that we captured off of I-10 (one of the major freeways in the city) while driving.

This is almost 1 week after the hurricane with virtually no rain and sunny skies. The city is also under mandatory 12AM curfew - no one should be out on the streets. Security has also been heightened and neighborhoods such as my parents have also setup checkpoints to ensure that looting, theft, and crimes are minimized.

Above you will see pictures of the use of aqua dams around the city to control the flow of water and keep the flooding from overtaking highways and other areas as dams continuously perform controlled releasing of water to relive pressure.

Below are some pictures from my parents neighborhood which show the extent of the flooding and security in place. There are also checkpoints where people can get relief goods such as food and water since a lot of stores are closed as well.''

You will notice many people trying to get around in canoes and boats around the city. Of course then again, some people are just making the best of the situation and having fun.

I have been living in the Philippines for the past 11 years, and flooding is a regular and annual occurrence which everyone is used to. The country itself is amazingly resilient and recovers almost immediately and over night in similar situations. It makes me appreciate just how different life is everywhere and how fragile we can be. As human beings, we are resourceful, inventive, and resilient, but when it comes to life and our place in this world, mother nature can decide to just wipe us out at any given time. We can only hope to evolve, adapt, and fight to survive.

As I write this, another record breaking hurricane (Irma) is headed towards Florida and surrounding islands - I hope and pray for the safety of everyone in it's path.

As always Thanks for reading. If you found this post informative - please Follow, Upvote, Comment, Resteem and let me know what you think in the comments below

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