By Cory
How Economically Bad Is Hurricane Harvey
Here is great post from our friend Chris Martenson over at PeakProsperity.com. Chris joins me on this weekend’s show to further discuss the fallout from Hurricane Harvey but the post below does a great job of explaining just how bad things could be.
Click here to read the full post on Chris’s site as well as the comments. There are a number of insightful comments that are worth your attention.
… Here’s the posting…
Harvey Is A Major Still-Unfolding Disaster
How many Texans wish they had done more in advance?
Superstorm Harvey continues to wreak epic damage to Texas, particularly Houston.
But it’s not the wind, it’s the rain. Epic, record-breaking, unbelievable amounts of rain.
It’s entirely possible that the entire region will not get back ‘to normal’ for months, if not years.
Vice President Mike Pence noted that given the “magnitude of the flooding” that “it will be years coming back.” (Source)
Tens of thousands of homes are flood damaged, many of them total losses. Only one-in-six Houston residences is thought to have flood insurance.
FEMA Director Brock Long said 30,000 are in temporary shelters with 450,000 expected to seek assistance. That may well grow if Harvey cycles back for another hit, which is quite likely at this time (see below).
The entire city of Houston is deserted except for rescue vehicles. So a major American city is not at work today. Or tomorrow. Or….???
A significant portion of the nation’s energy infrastructure is directly impacted by Harvey’s biblical rains and current total shutdown. Crude oil will accumulate there as refineries are unable to process it into fuel products. The prices for those same fuel products has been rising and will continue to spike higher. If this goes on for long enough, actual shortages will result.
The only mitigating factors working against the accumulation of crude at storage farms is the shutdown of wells in the Gulf as well as possibly a few wells in Texas’ Eagle Ford region, for which no back-up power exists at the well sites. I don’t have any information on how extensive that might be yet. I’m just guessing at this point.
Rivers in Houston are not expected to crest until Tuesday, at some 11 feet (!!) higher than their current “major flood” stage (forecast as of 2:15 a.m. August 28th, 2017).
There’s no historical parallel for this level of flooding, so we’ll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.
The good news is that the past 24 hours have seen relatively little rainfall (just under an inch).
The really bad news is that the latest models show Harvey heading back into the Gulf, picking up more moisture and power, possibly becoming a hurricane again, and then coming back ashore aimed straight for a second savaging of Houston:
That would be thoroughly cruel to those who’s lives have already been upended by this storm. But nature can be rather remorseless that way.
As the WSJ put it this morning:
HOUSTON—Tropical Storm Harvey was poised to re-enter the Gulf of Mexico Monday …read more
Source:: The Korelin Economics Report
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