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People walk down a flooded street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey on August 28, 2017 in Houston, Texas.
Having dropped more than 50 inches of rain in an area east of Houston, Hurricane Harvey was officially declared "the most extreme rain event in U.S. history" on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service sent out notice Tuesday morning that Mary's Creek at Winding Road in Southeast Houston reported 49.2 inches of rain, but that number had been eclipsed by mid-afternoon, when Nielsen-Gammon recorded the new high mark at 50.4 inches.
"The 3-to-4 day rainfall totals...are simply mind-blowing," declared a National Weather Service office in Houston.
"All rainfall totals from this storm are still preliminary and require review. But, if verified, this amount breaks not only the Texas state rainfall record but also the record for the remaining Lower 48 states," observes the Washington Post's Jason Samenow. "Hawaii has logged isolated reports of greater amounts at high elevations from tropical systems, but the footprint from Harvey in Southeast Texas is much larger. It has produced at least three feet of rain over most of the Houston region, affecting more than 5 million people."
The astonishing numbers--which Samenow says puts Hurricane Harvey "in a class of its own"--come as many continue to either evacuate Texas or seek shelter within the state. Some estimates put the number of people who could be left displaced by Harvey at around 30,000. By Tuesday afternoon, the estimated death toll from the storm had reached 15.
As Common Dreams reported on Monday, scientists have argued that extreme weather events like Hurricane Harvey--as well as the monsoon flooding that is currently ravaging Bangladesh, India, and Nepal--represent "the new reality" as the planet warms and sea levels rise.
In an appearance on "CBS This Morning" Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that the destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey--and the extreme events that are sure to be worsened by human-caused climate change--makes mutual aid and solidarity as essential as ever.
"If there's any silver lining in the terrible suffering that's going on in Houston, it is to remember that we are all one country, and I am sure whether you're white or black or Latino, people are coming together to help each other all over the country," Sanders said. "We are one nation and we have got to stop the type of divisions that Trump and others are bringing about trying to divide us up."
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Having dropped more than 50 inches of rain in an area east of Houston, Hurricane Harvey was officially declared "the most extreme rain event in U.S. history" on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service sent out notice Tuesday morning that Mary's Creek at Winding Road in Southeast Houston reported 49.2 inches of rain, but that number had been eclipsed by mid-afternoon, when Nielsen-Gammon recorded the new high mark at 50.4 inches.
"The 3-to-4 day rainfall totals...are simply mind-blowing," declared a National Weather Service office in Houston.
"All rainfall totals from this storm are still preliminary and require review. But, if verified, this amount breaks not only the Texas state rainfall record but also the record for the remaining Lower 48 states," observes the Washington Post's Jason Samenow. "Hawaii has logged isolated reports of greater amounts at high elevations from tropical systems, but the footprint from Harvey in Southeast Texas is much larger. It has produced at least three feet of rain over most of the Houston region, affecting more than 5 million people."
The astonishing numbers--which Samenow says puts Hurricane Harvey "in a class of its own"--come as many continue to either evacuate Texas or seek shelter within the state. Some estimates put the number of people who could be left displaced by Harvey at around 30,000. By Tuesday afternoon, the estimated death toll from the storm had reached 15.
As Common Dreams reported on Monday, scientists have argued that extreme weather events like Hurricane Harvey--as well as the monsoon flooding that is currently ravaging Bangladesh, India, and Nepal--represent "the new reality" as the planet warms and sea levels rise.
In an appearance on "CBS This Morning" Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that the destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey--and the extreme events that are sure to be worsened by human-caused climate change--makes mutual aid and solidarity as essential as ever.
"If there's any silver lining in the terrible suffering that's going on in Houston, it is to remember that we are all one country, and I am sure whether you're white or black or Latino, people are coming together to help each other all over the country," Sanders said. "We are one nation and we have got to stop the type of divisions that Trump and others are bringing about trying to divide us up."
Having dropped more than 50 inches of rain in an area east of Houston, Hurricane Harvey was officially declared "the most extreme rain event in U.S. history" on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service sent out notice Tuesday morning that Mary's Creek at Winding Road in Southeast Houston reported 49.2 inches of rain, but that number had been eclipsed by mid-afternoon, when Nielsen-Gammon recorded the new high mark at 50.4 inches.
"The 3-to-4 day rainfall totals...are simply mind-blowing," declared a National Weather Service office in Houston.
"All rainfall totals from this storm are still preliminary and require review. But, if verified, this amount breaks not only the Texas state rainfall record but also the record for the remaining Lower 48 states," observes the Washington Post's Jason Samenow. "Hawaii has logged isolated reports of greater amounts at high elevations from tropical systems, but the footprint from Harvey in Southeast Texas is much larger. It has produced at least three feet of rain over most of the Houston region, affecting more than 5 million people."
The astonishing numbers--which Samenow says puts Hurricane Harvey "in a class of its own"--come as many continue to either evacuate Texas or seek shelter within the state. Some estimates put the number of people who could be left displaced by Harvey at around 30,000. By Tuesday afternoon, the estimated death toll from the storm had reached 15.
As Common Dreams reported on Monday, scientists have argued that extreme weather events like Hurricane Harvey--as well as the monsoon flooding that is currently ravaging Bangladesh, India, and Nepal--represent "the new reality" as the planet warms and sea levels rise.
In an appearance on "CBS This Morning" Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that the destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey--and the extreme events that are sure to be worsened by human-caused climate change--makes mutual aid and solidarity as essential as ever.
"If there's any silver lining in the terrible suffering that's going on in Houston, it is to remember that we are all one country, and I am sure whether you're white or black or Latino, people are coming together to help each other all over the country," Sanders said. "We are one nation and we have got to stop the type of divisions that Trump and others are bringing about trying to divide us up."