Hurricane Harvey made landfall in southeast Texas Saturday, August 26, and spanned over 280 miles in length. The Category Four hurricane made history as the strongest storm to occur in the state of Texas since hurricane Rita in 2005, according to weather.com. The storm deposited nearly 33 trillion gallons of water, enough to fill 185,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. According to washingtonpost.com, the storm swept across the state stretching 128.4 miles from Austin to Port Mansfield.
According to The New York Times, in 56 hours, Hurricane Harvey grew from a tropical storm to a Category Four hurricane, headed for Houston. The city of Rockport, located on Texas’ coast, was directly in the path of the storm, which resulted in the destruction of many homes and buildings, due to heavy rainfall and wind gusts up to 132 miles an hour, according to washingtonpost.com.
In addition to the storm’s strong wind gusts, Hurricane Harvey exceeded Tropical Storm Allison’s record of the heaviest rainstorm since 2001, according to washingtonpost.com. Hurricane Harvey broke an all-time continental United States rainfall record for tropical cyclones, raining 50 inches of precipitation on areas of coastal Texas over the course of four days, according to news.nationalgeographic.com. Although Hurricane Harvey broke multiple hurricane records, climate scientists predict similarly intense storms will only become more typical as the climate temperature rises, according to washingtonpost.com.
“The Duchesne community was impacted profoundly being that a number of our families, faculty, and staff were flooded out of their homes,” Assistant Head of School at Duchesne Academy Mrs. Pam Schlief said.
The storm’s impact on Houston resulted in Sacred Heart Greenwich organizing a collection drive for relief supplies to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
The Upper and Middle School donated over 17 boxes of relief donations, including work gloves, masks, and socks, according to Head of Upper School Community Service Ms. Kerry Bader. In addition to clothing and food items such as oatmeal and canned soup, a civvies day at Sacred Heart Greenwich raised $1,600 for the Sacred Heart network’s Cor Unum fund, which supports the impacted faculty, staff, and families of Sacred Heart schools.
Despite the catastrophic impact of areas damaged by Hurricane Harvey, relief efforts have brought Sacred Heart communities closer.
“This has led to our community banding together and finding ways to help and support those that are going through that process,” Mrs. Schlief said.
-Georgia Ferguson, Staff Writer