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First Draft Of A Descriptive Essay About A Storm


One of the reasons that Harvey was so destructive is that people did not have adequate time to prepare for the storm.  Harvey formed very quickly and was expected to make landfall as a tropical storm or, at most, a Category 1 hurricane.  The upgrade to above Category 1 status occurred very quickly before landfall.  Although local employers and school districts struggled to make arrangements for people to have time to plan adequately, people had less than 24 hours to plan for the severity of the storm.  Therefore, many people did not evacuate flood-prone areas, not because they were ignoring recommendations, but because they did not have time to do so before the storm hit.

In addition, once Harvey’s severity was realized, it became clear that Harvey would bring a major flooding event.  This is because, despite the speed of its rotational winds, Harvey was a very slow-moving storm.  The weather pattern means that Harvey continued to pick up water from the Gulf of Mexico and dump it over the same area of Texas over a period of days.  These super-saturated areas experienced repeated episodes of flooding.  Each flooding episode impacted more and more areas, as the traditional flood drainage plans were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of water.

Finally, Harvey’s destruction would not have been as noticeable if it had hit elsewhere along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.  Though it made landfall in a relatively sparsely-populated area of Texas, the “dirty” side of the storm, where most of the rain and tornadoes were expected, hit the metropolitan Houston area.  The metropolitan Houston area is the country’s fourth-most-populated metropolitan area.  The sheer number of people impacted intensified the storm’s destruction.

Combined together, a number of factors made Hurricane Harvey a significant storm.  First, the storm formed quickly and escalated to a Category 4 in a very short period of time, giving people inadequate time to prepare for it by evacuating.  Second, because Harvey was slow-moving, the flooding and tornadoes continued for days after Harvey made landfall.  Finally, Harvey’s location contributed to its destruction; it impacted the fourth-most-populated metropolitan area in the country.  Although it may be months before officials can begin to estimate the financial damages, the amount of injuries, or the death toll related to the storm, these factors make it clear that Harvey might be the most destructive natural disaster to ever hit the United States.

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Hurricane Harvey Essay. (2017, August 28). Retrieved from

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

"Hurricane Harvey Essay." Student Network Resources Inc, 28 August. 2017. Web. 8 March 2018.

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Student Network Resources Inc. "Hurricane Harvey Essay." (accessed March 8, 2018).

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First Draft

Weather has a way of making people feel a certain way, by affecting their mood. Bright and sunny weather tends to make people happier, while dull and dreary weather brings about less appealing emotions, such as grumpiness, sadness, or fear. Tornado weather, especially in tornado alley, is a source of emotion. For many people living in tornado alley, tornado season offers a mix of fear and excitement. However, for most, when the tornado is actually present, fear tends to take over and the excitement is lost. The tornado that occured on May 20th, 2013 was a great example of how a tornado can turn from exhilirating to terrifying. This past tornado season, the weather was naturally stormy, but nothing of great concern had…show more content…

I rushed to my car, trying to stay as dry as possible, but failing, as the rain was coming down in sheets. As I pulled out of the school parking lot, my car began shuddering and jerking, as if being jerked by a rope. I dismissed it, thinking it was just a product of the weather. I began to get a sinking feeling in my stomach; the kind of feeling where I knew something bad could possibly happen. In a hope to feel better, I called my mom and she reassured me that everything would be okay. By the time i arrived at work, I could barely see the road. I ran in the door and Hayley, my coworker, was lining the kids up as they got in from school. She looked as frantic as i felt, urgently telling them to keep their backpacks on and sit in a line. We rushed next door to the other part of the center and to the back of the building, into the baby room, which was designated for dangerous, but not fatal, situations. The miniscule room was packed with all of the children in the center, as well as the staff. The sound of the rain hitting the roof and the cries of babies filled the room. The teachers quickly passed out pretzels to their kids, trying to console them. As parents began arriving, a staff member would rush the child who was leaving to the front, trying to get them home as fast as possible. Most of the staff members were pulling out their cellphones to contact their families; the no cell phone rule forgotten. I kept trying to call my mom, but a tower had