Reflection

Reflection

Each time I experience one of Houston’s extreme weather events, I think no future storm could possibly outdo the shock, sudden onset, death and damage of the one I just survived. Unfortunately, I’ve been proven wrong on three separate occasions and I’m only 11 years old. In Houston, Texas summers are expected to be hot and the winters are usually fairly mild. While those weather patterns are fairly reliable, there are occasions when the weather is treacherous and in fact, deadly. My earliest memory is when I was 4 years old experiencing Hurricane Harvey. Hurricanes are fairly common to the Gulf Coast, but this one decided to stay for four long days after it came ashore. Many people are surprised to hear that it wasn’t the category 4 high winds that did the most damage; it was the 54 inches of rain that fell in those fateful days, taking 103 lives and causing more than $125 billion in damages. Four years later, in the middle of February, Houston was brought to its knees by Winter Storm Uri, a catastrophic ice storm bringing 75 mph winds and causing the state’s power grid to fail. Most people were unprepared for the plummeting temperatures and loss of power. Almost 300 people lost their lives during the four-day weather nightmare. The damages reached $25.5 billion and are still affecting many severely impacted areas. True to its extreme weather reputation, downtown Houston suffered another weather phenomenon carrying Category 2 force winds and tornadoes that formed and heightened the destruction by ripping up mature trees, tearing down power lines, and breaking out highrise windows. The storm claimed the lives of 21 people and caused $5-7 billion in damages. Some residents were without power for more than seven days. In this painting it shows many different administrations, including NCDC, NOAA and USGS that help prevent these extreme weather events.