Talk:Hurricane Harvey

Rearranging the Start
Hurricane Harvey is primarily notable for dumping torrential rains on Houston and the surrounding areas, thereby causing immense damage. While it caused a record amount of damage, it did that by dumping all that rain and doing all that damage. When we write about other things - like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, or the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, we generally start off by stating what the event was (a massive megathrust earthquake, a category 5 hurricane, whatever), then the damage it did, then conclude by noting it caused a record amount of damage as a consequence of that. Starting off with "it set these records" is putting the cart in front of the horse - we should first explain what it was and what damage it did, because that is what made it notable, and then note the record afterwards. When someone is looking up Hurricane Harvey, the first thing they're going to want to know is "Why was this important?" and the answer is "Because it caused massive damage by flooding Houston." Titanium Dragon (talk) 04:21, 4 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Except, the infobox to the right pretty much gives all the essential meteorological details such as being Category 4 and the page title makes readers know it was a hurricane. This is indicated much more prominently in tropical cyclone articles than in other disaster articles so the comparison with earthquakes and tsunamis is not valid. This practice is followed in nearly every tropical cyclone article I have read, including a few good articles.--Jasper Deng (talk) 05:19, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

Personally, I agree with Jasper as stating that Harvey was a Category 4 hurricane kind of undermines the introduction. I mean, for Hurricane Michael, we start off with its intensity records and damage statistics, so why shouldn't Harvey be the same? We should probably do the same with Katrina, which had its introduction edited too. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JoeMT615 (talk • contribs) 03:17, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

198 billion in damage?
this states that 198 billion dollars of damage was cost, well over that of Katrina. This source is also used in the article for Texas. Alex of Canada (talk) 19:43, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Except, those estimates for Harvey (nor their estimates for Katrina -- $158−194 Billion -- have not been accepted yet by either the National Hurricane Center or the World Meteorological Organization, both who records the official estimates of both storms as $125 Billion.--Halls4521 (talk) 09:16, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
 * According to this site, Harvey is the 2nd costliest hurricane, not tied with Katrina for the first. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/dcmi.pdf 2601:343:8100:A526:8CCF:438D:1B8C:58B1 (talk) 21:20, 30 March 2023 (UTC)
 * I agree, but the information cannot be edited without forehand consensus. MasterOpel 21:46, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

Energy section, last paragraph
Hi. This is re: "However, the increase was not as extensive as Hurricane Katrina due to the development of more fuel-efficient vehicles as well as fracking technology having been refined since Katrina to allow oil drilling in shale areas such as the Marcellus Formation.[85]" The citation doesn't support the portion of the sentence that is "due to the development of more fuel-efficient vehicles as well as fracking technology having been refined since Katrina to allow oil drilling in shale areas such as the Marcellus Formation." I recommend ending the sentence after "Hurricane Katrina." An additional problem with the balance of the sentence, besides not source-supported, is that the Marcellus formation produces natural gas and not oil. Without getting too deep in the weeds of the complexity of the workings of the U.S. energy portfolio and infrastructure, I'll just leave it there. Thanks. RobertaBoucher (talk) 18:55, 6 September 2019 (UTC)RobertaBoucher, 9-6-19

Semi-protected edit request on 9 November 2019
2602:306:8BB9:4E20:45BD:3B7F:A705:DCD0 (talk) 03:38, 9 November 2019 (UTC) HurricaneNerd changed Harvey's costliest rank to 2nd when it is obviously tied with Katrina according to the NHC. Please change to "Tied as costliest tropical cyclone on record." Thanks! 2602:306:8BB9:4E20:45BD:3B7F:A705:DCD0 (talk) 03:38, 9 November 2019 (UTC) The user's change: User's contributions
 * ✅ ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 09:01, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Effects of Hurricane Harvey in Texas
I recently completed work on the long overdue Effects of Hurricane Harvey in Texas article. Can I get some help trimming this main article down, since the content will be in the other one?ChessEric (talk · contribs) 00:37, 20 November 2020 (UTC)


 * First let’s move the article to main space . Then, I guess other people could, but I won’t be helping(I have other things to do). HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 00:54, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

One quick note before you publish - be sure to get a damage figure just for Texas. The $125 billion is for the entire United States. ♫ Hurricanehink ( talk ) 00:55, 20 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I've literally been looking all day for a Texas damage figure and can't find one. Can you help with that?ChessEric (talk · contribs) 01:13, 20 November 2020 (UTC)
 * NCDC has $41 billion. This source has $27B for Harris and Galveston counties. Insured damage in the state was $20 billion. Considering Louisiana damage was around $75 million per NCDC, it's likely most of the $125B occurred in Texas, but I'd still like a more reliable damage total, someone saying that with confidence (and not an estimate immediately after the storm). This site, for instance, mentions a $180 Billion damage total in Texas, but that's an overestimate. The same source indicated Texas Governor Abbott requested $61 billion in recovery funds. This source from Texas A&M says $125B in damage occurred in Texas, which cited this news report that mentions the US damage total at $125B (and not Texas specifically). So that's what I got. ♫ Hurricanehink ( talk ) 01:47, 20 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I think I'll go with the NCDC report for now. I use that for my tornado articles, so I see no problems with doing that here.ChessEric (talk · contribs) 22:22, 20 November 2020 (UTC)
 * -whats more reliable, something that may be off by like, a billion dollars at most, or something that is likely only 1/3 of the damage it did in Texas. Why not $124.925 billion(which subtracts the $75 million from louisiana). HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 23:30, 20 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Effects weren't just felt in Texas and Louisiana, but in many other states and countries. The damage was just maximized in Texas and Louisiana.ChessEric (talk · contribs) 23:44, 20 November 2020 (UTC)
 * this site claims it's at least $100 billion. I'll look for more tomorrow. --HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 23:51, 20 November 2020 (UTC)
 * (1) That estimate is in the caption of a picture and (2) it says the damage in Texas COULD exceed $100 billion. Going to stick with the other estimate for now.ChessEric (talk · contribs) 00:06, 21 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Hurricane Harvey was the costliest tropical cyclone on record (tied with Hurricane Katrina of 2005), inflicting roughly $125 billion in damage across the Houston metropolitan area and Southeast Texas. from our MH article. --HurricaneTracker495 (talk) 00:27, 21 November 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 May 2023
~BBC50.205.109.159 (talk)
 * Please be specific on what change you want done. -- Mvqr (talk) 16:03, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

Edit request for "Impacts in the United States/houston metropolitan area flooding"
The video that is included with this subsection is of a rescue in Beaumont, Texas. Beaumont is not in the Houston metropolitan area either in the vernacular, or in the linked metropolitan statistical area. Beaumont is further to the east than the easternmost counties of the area (Chambers/Liberty), outside the counties included in the broad Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land-Baytown MSA (which is linked and can be referenced, with map), and certainly outside what people would commonly refer to as the metro area. Can someone please replace this with a picture from the actual Houston area flooding? There are innumerable images, I am sure. It's a nice video, it just doesn't belong in this subsection.12.11.127.253 (talk) 20:46, 31 August 2023 (UTC)


 * Hello IP editor--I've moved the video down to the section on Beaumont. You are correct that there are a lot of photos of the impacts of Harvey on the Houston area--there are so many, in fact, that I do not have a clue what to replace the video with. There are about 350 photos available at commons:Category:Effects of Hurricane Harvey in Houston. If you see a photo in that category that you'd like to use in this article, I'll be happy to add it in for you. Aoi (青い) (talk) 20:55, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 October 2023
Please add Burners Without Borders,a non profit associated with Burning Man, spent September, October and parts of November doing volunteer clean up work with over 100 volunteers some staying for a full month. They were located on the western edge of Harvey's landfall helping mostly the elderly and handicapped removing debris and clearing damaged trees. There work saved these people who could not afford the expense several hundred thousand dollars. 2600:1700:2F01:9CF0:C5BD:8CD7:42EC:2082 (talk) 22:30, 26 October 2023 (UTC) I was there for a full month doing physical labor and saw this.
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Cannolis (talk) 02:02, 27 October 2023 (UTC)