Responding to Harvey and Irma: Rapid Response Teams Take Action
Government food protection officials do a great deal of various types of work to ensure food marketed within their jurisdiction is safe. Most people are generally aware of the food establishment inspections, consumer complaint investigations, and food sampling and testing conducted on a daily basis by government food safety agencies, but they may be less aware of the critical work performed by these agencies during their most important functions. Three of these most important functions are investigations relating to foodborne illness, coordinating food recalls, and responding to disasters. During disaster response, government officials work to identify and mitigate food safety issues that were created by the disaster and assist industries into the recovery phase. Their response can occur directly, by visiting the site, or indirectly, through a press release or advisory placed with the media.
Public health officials at all levels of government recognize that food emergencies can occur at any time and have a huge impact on the citizens they work so hard to protect. These food emergencies are the result of both man-made and natural disasters. Man-made disasters include vehicle mishaps, explosions, chemical spills, and nuclear accidents, whereas natural disasters include hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, blizzards, and wildfires. They all can create havoc in the normal lives of citizens and have serious impacts on food safety and the economy.
Hurricanes are one of the most damaging natural disasters; they are perilous for not only the people living in their paths but for the national economy as well. A hurricane can lower U.S. production, increase unemployment, and depress financial markets.
For the sake of the discussion below, we offer the following definitions of hurricane categories:
Category 1: Very dangerous winds between 74 and 95 mph will cause some damage, and power outages for a few days are likely
Category 2: Extremely dangerous winds between 96 and 110 mph will cause extensive damage and a near-total power loss that could last up to a few weeks
Category 3: Devastating damage will occur from winds between 111 and 129 mph; electricity and water will be unavailable for up to several weeks, and trees will be snapped or uprooted, blocking roads
Category 4: Catastrophic damage will occur from winds between 130 and 156 mph; even well-built framed homes will lose most of the roof structure and/or some exterior walls; fallen trees and power poles will probably isolate residential areas, and power outages could last possibly months
Category 5: Catastrophic damage will occur from winds 157 mph or higher; a high percentage of homes will be destroyed; and most areas will be uninhabitable for weeks or months
The United States is very vulnerable to hurricane damage. The 2017 hurricane season was especially harsh, as two major hurricanes—Harvey and Irma—blasted the U.S. East Coast with winds exceeding 130 mph.
Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey began as a tropical wave off the west coast of Africa on August 13, 2017, and tracked across the Atlantic Ocean, where it became a tropical storm on August 17. After entering the Caribbean Sea, it became disorganized and then entered the Gulf of Mexico on August 22. It would intensify due to the warm Gulf waters and soon grew into a Category 1 hurricane on August 24 with 80-mph winds. It continued to gain strength as it churned toward Texas. The National Hurricane Center upgraded the storm to a Category 4 hurricane August 25, with sustained winds of up to 130 mph.
It first made landfall over San Jose Island and then near Rockport in south-central Texas late August 25 threatening millions of residents with 130-mph winds, heavy rains, and a massive storm surge that swamped coastal areas. As the hurricane moved inland, its forward motion slowed to near 5 mph and meandered just north of Victoria, Texas. Strong rain bands developed during the evening of August 26, causing tremendous rainfall rates and rapid development of flash flooding.
By August 27, winds died down to as low as 40 mph, but the storm dumped a year’s worth of rain in less than a week on Houston and much of southeastern Texas. By August 29, two flood-control reservoirs had breached, increasing water levels throughout the Houston area.
Hurricane Harvey made its third and final landfall August 30 near Port Arthur, Texas, bringing widespread catastrophic flooding. While authorities and first responders handled as many as 10,000 rescue missions around Houston, at least 30,000 people fled to temporary shelters.
As the hurricane was being downgraded, it continued to dump massive amounts of rain on parts of eastern Texas. Some parts of Houston received more than 50 inches of rainfall—so much that the National Weather Service had to update the colors it uses on its weather charts to properly account for it.
On September 1, Texas governor Greg Abbott appeared on Good Morning America and said, “This is going to be a massive, massive cleanup process. People need to understand this is not going to be a short-term project. This is going to be a multi-year project for Texas to be able to dig out of this catastrophe.”
Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma was the most powerful Atlantic hurricane in recorded history. Its winds were 185 mph for 37 hours, longer than any storm ever recorded. Those winds extended 50 miles from the center of the hurricane. Its coastal storm surges were 20 feet above normal tide levels.