A year ago this weekend, Hurricane Harvey came ashore, roaring into Texas and Louisiana. Trapped between weather systems, Harvey sat in place over Southeast Texas for days, dumping trillions of gallons of rain and spawning unprecedented flooding. Harvey set the record as the wettest tropical cyclone ever to hit the contiguous United States, and tied with Katrina as one of the costliest tropical cyclones in history. More than 75 people died in Texas, and billions of dollars in damages were incurred. Today, the Associated Press reports that “although many Texas families are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Harvey … daily life has mostly returned to normal in many of the hardest hit communities.” See also reporting from our own Elaina Plott, who spent time with the current and former mayors of Houston, finding out why Hurricane Harvey is Houston’s unending nightmare.
A Look Back at Hurricane Harvey: One Year Since Landfall
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People are rescued from floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey on an air boat in Dickinson, Texas, on August 27, 2017. #
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This photo, made available by NASA, shows Hurricane Harvey over Texas on August 26, 2017, as seen from the International Space Station. #
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Lisa Rehr embraces her four-year-old son Maximus as they wait to be evacuated after losing their home to Hurricane Harvey in Rockport, Texas, on August 26, 2017. #
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A driver works his way through a maze of fallen utility poles damaged in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in Taft, Texas, on August 26, 2017. #
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George Cochrum and Caroline Wheeler walk down a flooded section of Interstate 610 in floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston on August 27, 2017. #
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An aerial view of damage caused by Hurricane Harvey in Rockport, Texas, on August 28, 2017 #
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People catch a ride on a construction vehicle down a flooded street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Houston on August 28, 2017. #
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Rescue boats fill a flooded street as flood victims are evacuated as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise in Houston on August 28, 2017. #
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A child is helped off the back of a rescue truck after his family evacuated their home after it was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Houston on August 28, 2017. #
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Interstate highway 45 is submerged from the effects of Hurricane Harvey in Houston on August 27, 2017. #
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A rescue helicopter hovers in the background as a woman and her poodle use an air mattress to float above floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey while waiting to be rescued from Scarsdale Boulevard in Houston on August 27, 2017. #
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Downtown Houston is reflected in flooded Buffalo Bayou on August 30, 2017, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. #
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A neighborhood near Addicks Reservoir is flooded by rain from Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston on August 29, 2017. #
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Jesus Rodriguez rescues Gloria Garcia after rain from Hurricane Harvey flooded Pearland, in the outskirts of Houston on August 27, 2017. #
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A cat tries to find dry ground around an apartment complex after it was inundated with water following Hurricane Harvey on August 30, 2017, in Houston. #
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A home is surrounded by floodwater after torrential rains pounded Southeast Texas on August 31, 2017, near Orange, Texas. #
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A submerged pickup truck remains in a neighborhood which was flooded when the Barker Reservoir reached capacity in the aftermath of Harvey on September 2, 2017, in Katy, Texas. #
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Volunteer rescue workers help a woman from her home that was inundated in Port Arthur, Texas, on August 30, 2017. #
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Vehicles sit amid leaked fuel mixed in with floodwaters caused by Tropical Storm Harvey, in the parking lot of Motiva Enterprises LLC in Port Arthur, Texas, on August 31, 2017. #
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People take shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston after flooding from Hurricane Harvey inundated the city on August 29, 2017. #
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Senior Airman Austin Hellweg, the 129th Rescue Squadron special-missions aviator, carries a dog and leads a family into an HH-60 Pave Hawk for extraction to a safer location during the relief effort for Hurricane Harvey in Beaumont, Texas, on August 31, 2017. #
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Frances Breaux cries as she talks about her fears for two close friends who live near the Arkema Inc. chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, on August 31, 2017. The Houston-area chemical plant that lost power after Harvey engulfed the area in extensive floods was rocked by multiple explosions. #
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Floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey pour over a roadway in Beaumont, Texas, on August 31, 2017. #
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A U.S. Air Force pararescueman from the 106th Rescue Wing, New York Air National Guard, carries a young girl to the safety of a HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter over floodwaters in Houston on September 1, 2017. #
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The marine veteran Jeremy Reed with the Wounded Veterans of Oklahoma helps to rescue horses from floodwater after torrential rains pounded Southeast Texas, on September 2, 2017, in Orange, Texas. #
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Trucks drive through flooded streets from Tropical Storm Harvey in Orange, Texas, on August 31, 2017. #
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Matthew Koser looks for important papers and heirlooms inside his grandfather's house after it was flooded by heavy rains from Hurricane Harvey on August 29, 2017, in the Bear Creek neighborhood of west Houston. The neighborhood flooded after water was released from nearby Addicks Reservoir. #
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Members of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Louisiana National Guard help rescue elderly people from the flooded Golden Years Assisted Living home in Orange, Texas, on August 30, 2017. #
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Gillis Leho looks for documents in her car that was covered by floodwaters in Houston on August 30, 2017. #
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The volunteers Brock Warnick, right, and Colten Roberts remove drywall and insulation from a home that was damaged by flooding in Houston on September 4, 2017. #
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Giant mounds of trash from flood-damaged homes line the sidewalks in Houston on September 2, 2017. #
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A man walks past debris from homes on his street damaged in flooding from Hurricane Harvey as an oil refinery stands in the background in Port Arthur, Texas, on September 28, 2017. #
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A worker cleans up debris in a neighborhood flooded by Hurricane Harvey in Beaumont, Texas, on September 26, 2017. #
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An excavator is used to move a mountain of debris created in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, in Port Aransas, Texas, on September 29, 2017. #
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In this August 9, 2018 photo, Shirley Paley, foreground right, receives a hug from Keith Downey inside her home, which was damaged during Hurricane Harvey in Houston. Paley hopes to move back into her home soon. #
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