on August 31. 22 weak tornadoes touched down throughout the state. An EF1 tornado near
Fresno caused some minor injuries. Total damage from the tornadoes reached $7.601 million, according to the
National Centers for Environmental Information. Throughout Texas, approximately 336,000 people were left without electricity and tens of thousands required rescue. Throughout the state, 103 people died in storm-related incidents: 68 from its direct effects, including flooding, and 35 from indirect effects in the hurricane's aftermath. On Monday, the closure of oil refineries ahead of Hurricane Harvey created a fuel shortage. Panicked motorists waited in long lines. Consequently, gas stations through the state were forced to close due to the rush. More than 20 percent of refining capacity was affected. More than 48,700 homes were affected by Harvey throughout the state, including over 1,000 that were completely destroyed and more than 17,000 that sustained major damage; approximately 32,000 sustained minor damage. Nearly 700 businesses were damaged as well. Yet the
Texas Department of Public Safety stated more than 185,000 homes were damaged and 9,000 destroyed. Over 500 roads closed throughout Texas, leading to the
Texas Department of Transportation website receiving 5 million visits. The hurricane also caused many people to believe that in the wild, only 10 individuals of
Attwater's prairie chicken remained at most until Spring 2018, when it was discovered that there were about a dozen wild individuals left.
Landfall area to
Port O'Connor, Texas, August 26, 2017 Making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, Harvey inflicted tremendous damage across
Aransas County. Nearly every structure in Port Aransas was damaged, some severely, while significant damage from storm surge also occurred. Many homes, apartment buildings, and businesses sustained major structural damage from the intense winds, and several were completely destroyed. Numerous boats were damaged or sunk at a marina in town, airplanes and structures were destroyed at the Aransas County Airport, and a
Fairfield Inn in the city was severely damaged as well. About 20 percent of Rockport's population was displaced, and they were still unable to return to their homes a year after the hurricane. One person died in a house fire in the city, unable to be rescued due to the extreme weather conditions. Just north of Rockport, many structures were also severely damaged in the nearby town of
Fulton. In the small community of
Holiday Beach, catastrophic damage occurred as almost every home in town was severely damaged or destroyed by storm surge and violent winds. By the afternoon of August 26, more than of rain had fallen in the
Corpus Christi metropolitan area. with a maximum of in
Nederland. This makes Harvey the wettest tropical cyclone on record for both Texas and the United States, surpassing the previous rainfall record held by
Tropical Storm Amelia. The local National Weather Service office in Houston observed all-time record daily rainfall accumulations on both August 26 and 27, measured at respectively. Due to the amount of rain accumulated from Harvey, the National Weather Service added 2 new colors to the rain index representing around 50% of the maximum rainfall dropped by Harvey. Multiple flash flood emergencies were issued in the Houston area by the National Weather Service beginning the night of August 26. In Pearland, a suburb south of Houston, a report was made of of rainfall in 90 minutes. The of rain in August made the month the wettest ever recorded in Houston since record keeping began in 1892, more than doubling the previous record of in June 2001. The of rain from August 26–28 set a United States record for highest 3-day rainfall at a major city. The
storm surge peaked at 6 feet at
Port Lavaca, reducing outflow of rainwater from land to sea. During the storm, more than 800
Houston area flights were canceled, including 704 at
George Bush Intercontinental Airport and 123 at
William P. Hobby Airport. Both airports eventually closed. Several tornadoes were spawned in the area, one of which damaged or destroyed the roofs of dozens of homes in
Sienna Plantation. As of August 29, 14 fatalities have been confirmed from flooding in the Houston area, including 6 from the same family who died when their van was swept off a flooded bridge. A police officer drowned while trying to escape rising waters. An estimated 25–30 percent of Harris County—roughly of land—was submerged. Late on August 27, a mandatory evacuation was issued for all of
Bay City as model projections indicated the downtown area would be inundated by of water. Flooding was anticipated to cut off access to the city around 1:00 pm. CDT on August 28. Evacuations took place in
Conroe on August 28 following release of water from the Lake Conroe dam. On the morning on August 29, a levee along Columbia Lakes in Brazoria County was breached, prompting officials to urgently request for everyone in the area to evacuate. On August 28, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began controlled water releases from
Addicks and
Barker Reservoirs in the Buffalo Bayou watershed in an attempt to manage flood levels in the immediate area. According to the local Corps commander, "It's going to be better to release the water through the gates directly into Buffalo Bayou as opposed to letting it go around the end and through additional neighborhoods and ultimately into the bayou." At the time the releases started, the reservoirs had been rising at more than per hour. Many people began evacuating the area, fearing a levee breach. Despite attempts to alleviate the water rise, the Addicks Reservoir reached capacity on the morning of August 29 and began spilling out. The NASA
Johnson Space Center was closed to employees and visitors due to the flooding until September 5. Only the critical mission control staff remained and resided in the control rooms to monitor procedures of the
International Space Station.
Deep East Texas and Beaumont to Port Arthur area The
Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area also experienced torrential precipitation, including of rainfall in
Beaumont. Flooding to the north and east of the Houston area resulted in mandatory evacuations for portions of
Liberty,
Jefferson, and
Tyler counties, while
Jasper and
Newton counties were under a voluntary evacuation. One death occurred in Beaumont when a woman exited her disabled vehicle, but was swept away. In
Port Arthur, the mayor stated that the entire city was submerged by water. Hundreds of displaced residents went to the Robert A. "Bob" Bowers Civic Center for shelter, but they were evacuated again after the building began to flood. Water entered at least several hundreds of homes in Jefferson County.
Energy production Energy production in the
Gulf of Mexico declined in the wake of Harvey by approximately 21% — the output dropped to 378,633 barrels per day from the original 1.75 million
barrels of oil produced each day. The
Eagle Ford Rock Formation (shale oil and gas) in southern Texas reduced production by 300,000 to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to the
Texas Railroad Commission. Many energy-related ports and terminals closed, delaying about fourteen crude oil tankers. About 2.25 million bpd of refining capacity was offline for several days; that is about 12% of total US capacity, with refineries affected at Corpus Christi, and later
Port Arthur and
Beaumont, and
Lake Charles, Louisiana. The price of
Brent crude versus West Texas Intermediate crude oil achieved a split of
US$5. Two
ExxonMobil refineries had to be shut down following related storm damage and releases of hazardous pollutants. Two oil storage tanks owned by Burlington Resources Oil and Gas collectively spilled of crude in
DeWitt County. An additional of wastewater was spilled in the incidents. On August 30, the CEO of
Arkema warned one of its chemical plants in
Crosby, Texas, could explode or be subject to intense fire due to the loss of "critical refrigeration" of materials. All workers at the facility and residents within were evacuated. Eight of the plant's nine refrigeration units failed without power, enabling the stored chemicals to decompose and become combustible. Two explosions occurred around 2:00 a.m. on August 31; 21 emergency personnel were briefly hospitalized. Due to the shutdown in refineries,
gas prices did see an increase nationwide. However, the increase was not as
extensive as Hurricane Katrina. Additionally, Harvey's impact coincided with
Labor Day Weekend, which sees a traditional increase in gas prices due to the heavy travel for that weekend. Nonetheless, the spike brought the highest gas prices in two years. The game was later canceled to allow the Houston Texans players to return to Houston after the storm. In addition, the
Houston Astros were forced to move their August 29–31 series with the
Texas Rangers from
Minute Maid Park in Houston to
Tropicana Field in
St. Petersburg, Florida; ironically, just two weeks later,
Hurricane Irma would force the stadium's regular tenants, the
Tampa Bay Rays, to move three home games to
Citi Field in
New York City. This was despite a protectable roof at
Minute Maid Park. In the aftermath, the
Houston Astros began to wear patches which had the logo of the team with the word "Strong" on the bottom of the patch, as well as promoting the hashtag
Houston Strong, prominently displaying them as the Astros won the
2017 World Series. Manager
A. J. Hinch has stated in an interview that the team wasn't just playing for a title, but to help boost moral support for the city. The annual
Texas Kickoff game that was to feature
BYU and
LSU to kick off the
2017 college football season was moved to the
Mercedes-Benz Superdome in
New Orleans, Louisiana. The NCAA FBS football game between
Houston and
UTSA was postponed due to the aftermath of the storm. It was originally scheduled for September 2 at the
Alamodome in San Antonio and was ultimately canceled. The
Houston Dynamo rescheduled a planned
Major League Soccer match against
Sporting Kansas City on August 26 to October 11. The
Houston Dash of the
National Women's Soccer League rescheduled their August 27 match against the
North Carolina Courage to a later date. Both teams moved their training camps to
Toyota Stadium in
Frisco, Texas (near Dallas) while preparing for their next matches; the Dash's match the following week, against the
Seattle Reign, was played in Frisco, with all proceeds from ticket sales benefiting an
American Red Cross relief fund for hurricane victims. The Dynamo and Major League Soccer also donated a combined $1 million into the hurricane relief fund, while also opening
BBVA Compass Stadium to accept donated supplies for processing and distribution. ==Aftermath==