The roof of a property is essential to protecting the building itself. It’s there to keep the heat in and the cold out, and it also works to stop the rain from flooding in and ruining all the valuables inside. But a roof isn’t indestructible; it can falter and fail if it’s pushed enough.
Which is why, ideally, a roof inspection is performed once or twice a year, to help prevent that from happening. Sadly, a routine roof inspection won’t protect against acts of god.
That’s what the people of Texas are learning as Hurricane Harvey and its aftereffects batter the Gulf coastlines. Several roofs have already collapsed under the sheer amount of rain being dumped onto the region, stressing their frames.
“It’s a hurricane that’s going to prove more dangerous than many hurricanes,” warned Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas before the storm hit. “We are going to be dealing with immense, really record-setting flooding in multiple regions across the state of Texas.”
That warning proved accurate as Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on the Houston area.
There has been an incredible amount of rain in areas across Texas, and some unfortunate homes have even experienced waters rising to roof lines. Rescue operations have been running day and night to get to those that are trapped by the high waters, though rescue teams are spread thin.
“People are trapped inside at least one collapsed building. We can’t get rescue teams to them right now,” Rockport City Manager Kevin Carruth said.
The hurricane drenched a wide stretch of the coastline, covering miles of land and millions of people. Some four million people were in the storm’s direct path, with another 12 million under the tropical storm warning. Cities like Houston and San Antonio fall into the second category.
Gov. Abbot urged the residents of low-lying and coastal areas, and even residents of Houston, to evacuate quickly before the storm hit. Mayor Sylvester Turner, the mayor of Houston, did not make a similar call.
“What you don’t know and what nobody else knows right now is the magnitude of flooding that will be coming,” the governor had warned.
The last storm that swept through the region caused $30 billion in damage, and it was only a category two compared to Harvey’s category four rating.