Hurricane Harvey VS Hurricane Maria

Two devastating hurricanes ravaged through Texas and Puerto Rico in August and September 2017. Two different areas with similar damages and record breaking weather conditions however the US recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico have been markedly different from the recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

Hurricane Harvey, on par with Hurricane Katarina, was one of the worst storms to hit the United States since records began. Up on 13 million people in Texas state were affected with Huston bearing the largest brunt of the damage. 103 people died as a result of the disaster. The Hurricane caused extensive flooding with 100,000 thousand homes and businesses destroyed and residents (60,000) were widely displaced. As of December 2017, thousands of families were still living in hotels and short-term rental housing while they awaited approval from their insurance companies to cover the damages. Over 13 million people were directly affected by the flooding and adverse weather while a further one million vehicles were destroyed. The number of people claiming unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in almost two years. Schools were closed for more than a month, impacting the education of young people. While efforts were made to return Huston back to normal as quickly as possible, the lower income families without adequate insurance cover were worst affected and many have still not returned to their homes many months on.

Hurricane Maria which hit Puerto Rico on the 20th of September 2017, with already weakened infrastructure and a government struggling through bankruptcy, the tropical storm had a devastating impact on the island. There were fewer Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel in place on the island than were present following Hurricane Harvey in Texas, less public donation appeals and no visit from US president Donald Trump thus the response to Maria compared to that of Hurricane Harvey and Irma differed greatly. "It's very tough because it's an island," Trump said. "In Texas, we can ship the trucks right out there, you know, we've got A-pluses on Texas and Florida and we will also on Puerto Rico, but the difference is this is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean, and it's a big ocean." (CNN, 2017)

The country had already been facing a recession for over a decade before Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit. Almost half of residents lived below the poverty line. The damaging effect of

Heavy rains and flash floods brought on by the storm exacerbated widespread devastation, turning streets into rivers full of debris. In some areas, floodwaters were waist-high, more than 30 inches deep, and often sewage-ridden. Less than one percent of homeowners had flood insurance. Some Puerto Ricans were forced to cross swollen rivers after bridges collapsed to reach businesses where they could buy water and supplies. Hurricane Maria arrived only two weeks after Hurricane Irma passed just north of the island and left 1 million people without power. The effect on Puerto Rican families, and the island’s infrastructure, will take many years to heal unlike Huston which is functioning as normal a few months following the adverse weather.

Four months following Maria, an estimated 60,000 houses were still roofless, and thousands of people were still displaced, living in shelters or with friends or relatives. The storm left thousands of families without homes and destroyed some communities entirely. For months, most families and businesses remained without power, phone services were limited, and clean water, food, medicine and fuel were all in very short supply. Less than half of residents had their power restored two months after the storm had passed. For many, it will take years to fully recover. The lack of electricity, running water and reliable communications remain central challenges to the island as it struggles to return to a semblance of normal life. Some residents still don’t have access to clean water. Even where water service has been restored, many communities still have a “boil water” advisory in place. Other areas are still purchasing bottled water to get the clean water they need.

Despite the urgent need, Puerto Rico has struggled to secure adequate relief funds from the U.S. government. The storm disproportionately affected Puerto Rico’s poorest residents, who have fewer resources on hand to help them recover and rebuild. Many of these people live in more rural communities and the hard-to-reach areas of the mountains, and can expect to be the last to regain access to water or see their electricity restored.

From this blog I hope to challenge the stereotypes and highlight the inequalities between climate change displacement and the impacts in wealthy countries which can rebuild and return to normal life quickly, and countries which may not have the same means to recover. Texas was able to quickly recover from the hurricanes as its infrastructure was fairly solid prior to the storm thus the same destruction did not occur whereas in Puerto Rico, with an already struggling economy and weaker infrastructure, was more severely impacted and will likely take a long time to fully recover from this. Hurricane Maria, named as the worst storm to hit the Caribbean Islands in over 80 years, continues to affect residents and will for many years to come. Mass displacement has taken place as more than 200,000 Puerto Ricans, who are US citizens, have left home and arrived in the US continent since the storm. The scale of Maria’s destruction has been devastating, causing as much as $94 billion in damage, although less than the $125 billion caused following Hurricane Harvey, still a crippling toll for an island which was already billions of dollars in debt.