The anticipated slow movement of Hurricane Harvey once it makes landfall is reminding many of June 2001 when Tropical Storm Allison crept up on residents unexpectedly.
Allison left 30,000 people homeless, flooded more than 70,000 homes and destroyed 2,744 houses. 23 people died. $9 billion dollars of destruction was left in the storm’s wake.
Much like Harvey, it was the influence of a northern high pressure system that stagnated Allison and caused up to 40 inches of rain to flood roads, homes and the Texas Medical Center, where the Baylor college of Medicine suffered $455 million in damages and the UT Health Science Center took a hit close to $2 billion. Allison caused $9 billion in damage in Texas and led to a total of 41 deaths.
In the midst of mayhem was anger and confusion as Houstonians struggled to keep up with the rapidly changing situation. “It predated the widespread use of apps, social media, and so it was really difficult to get real time information then,” says Space City Weather meteorologist Eric Burger. He sees a similar pattern. “The thing that is obviously reminiscent of Allison is the fact that there are no steering currents, and so it’s going to move inland, stall and kind of wobble around and move probably close to Houston next week.”
KTRH will be updating with the latest information throughout Hurricane Harvey on-air, online and with the iHeartRadio app.
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