The Magazine of The Sierra Club
As Harvey Devastates Houston, People Come Together
Photographer Daniel Kramer documents Hurricane Harvey's destruction
Bryant Bailey, 65, from northeast Houston, wraps himself in an American Red Cross blanket to keep warm while seeking shelter in the George R. Brown Convention Center on Tuesday, August 29.
Houston opened the George R. Brown Convention Center to victims of Hurricane Harvey. This hall is pet-friendly. Administration officials expected 5,000 people, but as of the time this picture was taken, there were more than 10,000, and the Toyota Center had been opened as an overflow emergency shelter.
Officals at the George R. Brown Convention Center ran out of cots, so this man sleeps on cardboard with two of his dogs.
Jennifer Penland, DVM, of the Kingsland Blvd. Animal Clinic, volunteers her time to help take care of pets seeking shelter from Tropical Storm Harvey at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Kendra Morris, 20, from southeast Houston, waits to get back into the George R. Brown Convention Center. Morris had spent two nights in the shelter.
People out in northeast Houston surveying the damage from Tropical Storm Harvey floodwaters.
In northeast Houston, a man pushes his bike through floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey.
A Houston Fire Department rescue worker waits for the search boat to return, with the top of a car barely visible behind him in floodwaters from Greens Bayou.
Two people kayak in floodwaters from Greens Bayou in northeast Houston.
Two guys on a four-wheeler patrol a street in northeast Houston, looking for people in need of rescue.
I moved to Houston in 2000. We lived in an apartment complex downtown, and I remember Buffalo Bayou spilling over its banks due to Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. How horrifying it was to see this black mass of water creeping up the driveway at night.
When Hurricane Ike came along in 2008, I was the staff photographer for the Houston Press, and we rented a truck and were able to cover pretty much the entire region.
This time, I headed down to Corpus Cristi and covered the devastation from Hurricane Harvey in that region, then came back to Houston, where I almost couldn’t make it into my apartment complex. A phrase you hear a lot lately is, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” It’s a common scene to see vehicles going the wrong way on highways in the area, and often you see a group of vehicles pulled over and people gathered looking down onto a flooded scene below. It kind of reminds me of visiting Yellowstone and how groups of tourists would stop when a large animal was sighted.
On Monday, August 28, things looked truly dire. Officials said the levee pumps protecting Houston were straining, and meteorologists were predicting that Harvey was going to go back into the Gulf, regain its strength, and then hit Houston. I have friends who have lost their cars and homes. The George R. Brown Convention Center opened its doors on Friday and expected 5,000 evacuees. As of Tuesday, that number had doubled and Houston officials opened the Toyota Center as a spill-over emergency shelter. I remember when Katrina hit New Orleans and Houston mayor Bill White opened the decrepit Astrodome to house evacuees.
It seems now that the worst is past. It was truly something to see Houston come together to help each other. I’m very proud of my adopted hometown.
Daniel Kramer is a freelance photographer and educator in Houston, Texas.