Aug. 13, 2017: Harvey began as a tropical wave off the west coast of Africa.- Aug. 17, 2017: The National Hurricane Center began tracking Tropical Cyclone Nine. Later that day the storm was named Tropical Storm Harvey.
- Aug. 18, 2017: Tropical Storm Harvey hit the Windward Islands and entered the eastern Caribbean Ocean as a minimal tropical storm.
- Aug. 19, 2017: Tropical Storm Harvey dissipated into a tropical wave.
- Aug. 23, 2017: Harvey reformed into a tropical depression after hitting the warm waters of the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico. The governor of Texas issued a state disaster declaration for 30 counties.
- Aug. 24, 2017: Tropical Storm Harvey strengthened into a hurricane. FEMA established an Incident Support Base at Randolph Auxiliary Airfield near Seguin, Texas, to pre-position supplies including water, meals, blankets and other resources closer to the potentially affected areas, should they be needed and requested by the state. State and local officials would then be responsible for distributing any supplies to their communities.
- Aug. 25, 2017: Harvey became a Category 3 major hurricane and quickly gained strength to become a Category 4 storm. That night, Harvey made landfall on San Jose Island between Port Aransas and Port O’Connor as a Category 4 hurricane. Harvey made a second landfall at Holiday Beach as a Category 3 storm. The president issued a major disaster declaration for the State of Texas.
- Aug. 26, 2017: FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) began in Texas. Harvey weakened into a tropical storm. More than 15 inches of rain fell over San Patricio, Refugio, Nueces and Aransas counties as Harvey headed north toward Victoria County. The governor added 20 more counties to the state declaration.
- Aug. 27, 2017: FEMA mobilized four Incident Command Teams, worked with the State of Texas to develop an evacuation and support plan, supported the state with a food task force, set up three Incident Support Bases and a Federal Staging Area in San Antonio (Joint Base San Antonio) and supported 100 shelters for evacuees. The governor adds four more counties to his state declaration. Over the next few days, Harvey dropped up to 60 inches of rain (North American record) in parts of southeast Texas including Fort Bend, Brazoria and Harris counties.
- Aug. 28, 2017: The governor added four more counties to his state declaration. Fifteen to 25 inches of rain fell over much of Aransas, Refugio, San Patricio and Victoria counties.
- Aug. 29, 2017: Tropical Storm Harvey moved back into the Gulf of Mexico.
- Aug. 30, 2017: Harvey made its final landfall near Cameron, La.
- Sept. 7, 2017: The governor signed a proclamation creating the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas. The State of Texas requested FEMA provide manufactured housing units and travel trailers for Hurricane Harvey survivors.
- Sept. 14, 2017: The governor added two more counties to the disaster declaration.
- Sept. 18, 2017: $1 billion in disaster assistance and flood insurance claims were in the hands of Texans recovering from Harvey.
- Sept. 22, 2017: The Texas General Land Office signed an agreement with FEMA which includes a new model for simplifying and expediting the transition out of sheltering to short-term and long-term housing recovery efforts.
- Sept. 23, 2017: First extension of the TSA program.
- Sept. 25, 2017: FEMA Community Education and Outreach mission began in the Crosby Ace Hardware store.
- Oct. 7, 2017: First MHU licensed in to Aransas County applicant.
- Oct. 10, 2017: End of first TSA extension.
- Oct. 16, 2017: Two counties added to federal declaration: Grimes and Caldwell.
- Oct. 24, 2017: End of second TSA extension.
- Oct. 31, 2017: Deadline for local and state governments as well as nonprofit organizations to request reimbursements from FEMA Public Assistance.
- Nov. 27, 2017: End of third TSA extension.
- Nov. 30, 2017: Deadline for survivors to register with FEMA.
- Dec. 11, 2017: End of fourth TSA extension.
- March 12, 2018: End of fifth TSA extension.
- April 20, 2018: Last day for most survivors to schedule an inspection for the Direct Assistance for Limited Home Repairs program (DALHR).
- April 23, 2018: End of sixth TSA extension.
- May 31, 2018: End of seventh TSA extension.
- June 1, 2018: FEMA Joint Field Office in Austin became the Texas Recovery Office.
- June 30, 2018: End of the TSA program in Texas.
- Aug. 25, 2018: One year after Hurricane Harvey first made landfall in Texas.
THE INFOGRAPHIC
HURRICANE HARVEY
Survivor Stories
Rosenberg family lifts up home and community
When Hurricane Harvey flooded parts of Rosenberg, Texas, in Aug. 2017, the city was still recovering from damage caused by the Memorial Day 2016 floods, which were unlike anything most people in the community had ever seen.
“You never think that something like this can happen, and then it happens, and you’re like ‘Surely, it’s not going to happen again,’ and it happens in such a short period of time,” said Rose Pickens, who was born and raised in Rosenberg and now raises her three children there. “The news kept on taunting that [2016] was a 100-year flood, and it’s like, ‘Wow, 15 months [and it’s happening again].’ That’s pretty horrific.”
The Pickens family received aid from FEMA after evacuating for the 2016 flood and returned home “rather quickly.” The 2017 flood was a different story, as 3 feet of water inundated the home, ruining sheetrock and all the floors. They stayed in a hotel for three months while their home was returned to habitable conditions.
The Pickens family, though, is not going to sit back and wait for floodwaters to arrive a third time: They are elevating their home 10 feet.
“This beam tells me my house is not going to flood again,” Pickens said, pointing to one piece of equipment being used to elevate her home, “and if it does, the entire city of Rosenberg is underwater.”
The elevation process will take three to six months, so the Pickens family needed a place to stay while work was completed. Rose contacted FEMA and the Texas General Land Office (GLO), where she found truly caring, helpful support, but the process was frustrating nonetheless.
“A lot of people think it’s a sprint, that it should be done quickly, but it’s actually turning out to be a marathon,” she said. “I was starting to lose hope — it seemed like everything that we thought was going to happen [was] falling through, and I was becoming a little hopeless and a little desperate.”
Through it all, Christa López, director of the Hurricane Harvey Housing Program for GLO, kept working with Pickens and promised to do everything she could to secure a temporary housing unit for the family. Then one day in March, she delivered.
“I was sitting here and began to see the [RV] come up the street,” Pickens recalled. “Once I realized it was for us, the tears began to fall, and I just started praising God because there was hope.
“I immediately called [López] and said, ‘Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me and my family and how you’ve blessed us,’” Pickens said. “But I know this wasn’t special: You do this for everyone that comes across your desk. … Thank you so much for what you do for this community and everyone impacted.”
Pickens also has put her energy back into helping her community, where she is the director of the nonprofit Friends of North Rosenberg, a part of the global group Attack Poverty. The Friends are in the process of elevating six homes, while another 15 elevations are being planned. Volunteers also provide stress management counseling, preparedness workshops and many other resources for the impoverished members of Rosenberg.
“A lot of families … lost everything for a second time,” she said. “The community as a whole is very resilient. We’ve learned that being in poverty, you kind of learn how to navigate and deal with certain things that happen in life, and unfortunately this is one of those times.”
76-year-old’s long road to recovery leads to FEMA housing unit
Sandra Maynard didn’t want to be a burden. The 76-year-old, who lives alone in a one-story Port Aransas townhome, had recently undergone surgery as Hurricane Harvey approached, and her incision site had become infected. While everyone else in her 29-unit housing complex was evacuating, she felt her side was too painful to drive.
“I didn’t want to bother anybody to take me someplace, which I should have done,” she said. “But I’m one of those — I don’t want people to have to bother for anything that I need.”
Maynard’s house flooded that night while she was trying to sleep through the storm, which sounded “like somebody was throwing bowling balls on the roof.” Rainwater came in through the spaces around her door and windows, and sewage water came up through her tub and toilet. The next morning, she got her first look at the destruction Harvey left behind.
“There was debris all over the place,” she said. “There’s a little mini-mall in front of our townhouses, and there was a boat sitting up by one of the stores and a couple of boats in street. All the windows and doors were blown out of all the mini-mall stores. I could have gone in and helped myself.”
She spent the day in her townhome and began preparing for another night “in that terrible place,” when help finally came. Port Aransas police arrived to evacuate her and reunite her with her niece, who had driven from the Houston area to pick her up.
But Maynard’s road to recovery had just begun. Her side took months to heal, while she bounced from one relative’s home to another in Richmond, Texas, then Sealy, Texas, then Wisconsin, Minnesota and finally Illinois, before she got a temporary home of her own.
FEMA had called a few times to offer a temporary home, but since she had lost her car to Harvey, none of FEMA’s options were close enough to Port Aransas for her to keep tabs on her home’s reconstruction. But in January, FEMA came up with a temporary housing unit in Rockport, less than 20 miles from her townhouse.
“I’m very happy with what I’ve got from FEMA, although it did take me a while [to get it],” she said with a laugh. “I was surprised how well they’re looking after me; [the unit even has] a sprinkler system in case there’s a fire.”