The images of on-going Houston flood disaster are quite scary and heart shattering. A young man in his thirties burst into sorrowful tears as he watched all that he had worked for all his life gone with the flood. Many sought for safety on roofs of houses and on top of vehicles for hours as flood water covered everywhere. Worst hit are hapless children and aged ones. Perhaps more horrific is the case of a woman on wheel chair who had just had surgery and still had to cope with her frightened toddler. Homes were submerged while power was cut off. Even a heart of steel will melt at the sight of some of the horrific scenes. It is such a monumental catastrophe that is far beyond the scope of human and scientific capacity.
Many have become homeless as thousands of people continue to seek emergency shelter from the wind and rains. Reports say about 30,000 residents are presently in need of shelter while the Houston’s George R Brown Convention Centre has already exceeded its bed capacity of 5,000 even as new locations are being sought. A Red Cross source claim that volunteers at the Centre had to create space for more evacuees by pushing beds together. Houston authorities believe that in spite of the already jam-packed situation at the Centre, no one would be turned away from taking shelter there. The objective is to give as much succour to as many people as possible.
According to unconfirmed source, 26 people have been killed by the raging storm. The most pathetic being a family of six who allegedly got killed when the raging flood viciously swept them away in a van. Unidentified numbers of people are currently stranded in their homes awaiting rescue while rescue workers are using boat to reach out to the trapped. To further intensify rescue efforts, Texas Governor, Greg Abbot, has tripled the number of official personnel involved in rescue mission from 4000 to 12000.
All shops and business centres are currently shut down as loss incurred has tentatively been put at above 30 billion US dollars. This is aside huge health and economic concerns that might take years to really fully address. Since Texas is the energy hub of the USA, the disaster would no doubt have a grievous effect on the nation’s energy situation. Already, prices of gas have reportedly shot high in the Houston region.
Sadly, respite doesn’t seem to be in sight for Houston and her traumatized residents as storm Harvey is regaining strength and continues to batter south-eastern Texas, while life-threatening floods continue to surge through Houston. With up to 20 inches (51cm) of further rain already predicted for the grieving region, experts are of the view that the worst isn’t yet over for Houston.
According to experts, the situation is seemingly beyond control because the storm is generating an amount of rain that would normally be seen only once in more than a thousand years. There are fears that the floodwater would spill around a pair of 70-year old reservoir dams that protect the city-centre of Houston. This implies that flooding might get worse in the days ahead and the floodwaters will be slow to recede once Harvey finally moves on. To further reinforce the notion that the amount of water being currently experienced in Houston is unparalleled in contemporary age, the National Weather Service had to update the colour charts on its official rainfall maps to indicate heavier totals!
According to Tom Dart, an environmental expert, there is no way that Houston or any other city for that matter could have been ready for the current disaster because much of the Houston region’s flood planning is designed for the region for 100 years events, with just a 1% chance of occurring in any given year. He explicates that a flood of the magnitude being experienced in Houston is an 800-year event and it exceeds the design specifications of all the region’s levees as they couldn’t cope with a 59ft river level which threatens to overtop many of the levees put in place in the region to hold back flooding.
A major truth to discover from the Houston tragedy is that in-spite man’s advancement in technology and science; it is really difficult to fully tame nature. Modern industrial activity has embraced ruthless ways of crushing global natural systems. Indeed, the prevailing trend of the modern world is the pursuit of activities that portend great danger for the future existence of the earth. In finding solutions to complex world’s challenges, man unconsciously creates other problems that are often too difficult to manage.
While one might not really have a straight-jacketed explanation for the Houston disaster, commonsense should however instruct all that the less man tampers with nature, the better for us all. Meanwhile, may the Lord provide speedy succour for all victims of the Houston calamity flood.
Tayo Ogunbiyi
Ogunbiyi is of the Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos
