HURRICANE HARVEY, 2017-ROCKPORT
I took around 30 to 50 shots with my Hasselblad 503cw camera, but will only post about 9 for this web page. The destruction was bad. Real bad. A lot of the houses built in the 1970's did not do so well. The hurricane standards back then was maybe 100 mph? Harvey at it's core (eye wall area) produced 150 mph wind. You should note. There is a formula for FORCE, based on wind speed. Part of the formula the wind speed is squared, so every time you increase wind velocity the total FORCE value is increased by a factor of 4. So, a house rated at 100 mph and facing 150 mph winds would in effect be turned into tooth picks and that is what happened here.
Then you have to consider that near the eye wall there were tornados, and there is one apartment complex that was a 1970's building, and probably was hit by a tornado? It was totally destroyed as you can see in that one photo. I took more than this one but space is limited. How the sofa got out in the middle of the field I do not know. It was not put there but sucked out of a room and landed in the middle of a field. Most probably due to tornatic activity. As a side bar. That is why I am always working on my house which was built in 1973. I can tell you it could NOT withstand 150mph winds.
Anyway, the photos can be a bit depressing, or boring depending on your prespective. Boring, because I am basically taking photos of trash and garbage. Yes, true. But a month before this was someone's business or home. Now it is just garbage laying on the side of the road. You can't forget that.
The laundry mat photo was the worst. It was a brick building with all the washer and dryers neatly ligned up ready to go. Until Harvey that is.
Then there is the matter of the one lone shrimp boat. Sunk with it's bow sticking out of the water. Did you know that most of the shrimp boats survived the hurricane? Why? Well the majority of the captains docked their boats with their bows into the wind. The captain of the sunk boat tied up to the dock with the starbord side (right side) broadside to the main force of the wind. The wind hammered the boat against the dock until it finally sunk. You can't fix stupid. Yes, a captain of a boat should have known that.
You may click on the photo to enlarge it. Just looking at it in these thumb nail photos does not due justice to the total destruction visited upon Rockport, Texas.
