Estimates for total economic costs and damages shot up overnight to $42bn from $30bn, as flooding began to spread to Louisiana and flood control measures became overwhelmed, according to Chuck Watson, founder of the disaster modelling firm Enki Research.
While authorities were still focused on rescuing survivors yesterday, the question of the storm’s aftermath - and its long-lasting hit to the Texas and US economies - was only beginning to come into view.
“If Harvey were your normal hurricane it would be probably a $4bn event,” Watson said. “That would be tragic for the people affected, but for the effect on the macroeconomy, we wouldn’t be talking about it at all.”
But at $42bn in unrecoverable economic losses, Harvey would be about as damaging as Hurricane Ike, which struck Texas and parts of the Caribbean at a cost of $43bn in 2008, and Hurricane Wilma, which tore through North America in 2005, with a cost of nearly $38bn, according to Watson’s estimates.
And that figure could still go up.
Rescue teams in boats, trucks and helicopters scrambled to reach hundreds of Texans marooned on flooded streets in and around Houston.
Two more days of heavy rainfall are expected over parts of Texas and Louisiana as Harvey churns offshore, preparing to make landfall again today.
Meanwhile,President Donald Trump arrived in Texas yesterday to survey the damage, the biggest natural disaster of his tenure.