From the Wall St. Journal: Tropical Storm Harvey Will Cost Tens of Billions of Dollars
Extent of national economic toll depends on how much flooding ensues in the coming days.

From the Guardian, this summary of research on recovery in recent years. Not exhaustive, but reasonably well done. See: Experts say it could take Houston years to fully recover from Harvey.

While it’s too early to compare Houston’s recovery to places like New Orleans or New York, the current state of the city makes the scope of the challenge plain

From the NYTimes, Deluged Texas Braces for More Rain, and Years of Recovery.

As one of the most destructive storms in the nation’s history pummeled southeast Texas for a fourth day, forecasts on Tuesday morning called for still more rain, making clear that catastrophic flooding that had turned neighborhoods into lakes was just the start of a disaster that would take years to overcome.

Local, state and federal officials conceded that the scale of the crisis was so vast that they were nowhere near being able to measure it, much less fully address it.

A personal note:  the Diva has been engaged in studying disaster recovery for almost 40 years and does not recall ever hearing public officials state in week one of a disaster that the recovery process is likely to take years. The FEMA Administrator said it first a few days ago and several other officials have repeated that dire warning. It is important for public agencies and other organizations engaged in response and recovery activities to think through what a long stay in TX will mean and plan accordingly.

From Bloomberg News: Harvey’s Cost Reaches Catastrophic Level.

Hurricane Harvey’s second act across southern Texas is turning into an economic catastrophe — with damages likely to stretch into tens of billions of dollars and an unusually large share of victims lacking adequate insurance, according to early estimates.

Harvey’s cost could mount to $30 billion when including the impact of relentless flooding on the labor force, power grid, transportation and other elements that support the region’s energy sector, Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research, said in an email Monday. That would place it among the top eight hurricanes to ever strike the U.S.

What makes Houston so vulnerable to serious floods?. The size of storm Harvey is unusual – but rapid expansion, poor infrastructure and a distinctive topography have played a role in the devastating impact

From the WashPost this morning: Cost of cleaning up Harvey will bring new test of governance for Trump and GOP.  Some excerpts:

The catastrophic floods brought by Hurricane Harvey to southeastern Texas will pose an immediate test for the White House and Congress, pressing policymakers to approve billions of dollars in recovery funds even though they haven’t agreed on much else this year.

Harvey’s devastation poses President Trump’s first test in emergency assistance, potentially revealing whether he can overcome Congress’s deep divisions over spending and the budget to prioritize aid. It will also test whether Trump can suspend his adversarial governing style and even postpone his own agenda, notably an overhaul of the tax code, to assemble a major — and costly — package that could be directed to law enforcement, emergency relief, schools, infrastructure, hospitals, food banks and several other entities.

A related article from the Huff Post: Hurricane Harvey Should Be A Wake-Up Call To Trump’s Disaster Relief Budget.

• As noted by the National Weather Service: This event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced.
• Conflicts in assessments and orders of evacuation for H. Harvey. See: Harvey is causing Epic Catastrophic Flooding in Houston; Why Wasn’t the City Evacuated?
• The FEMA Administrator said publicly that FEMA will be working in Houston for years to come. I think the challenges to FEMA re recovery and to the National Flood Ins. Program will be staggering, not to mention costly.
• Last I heard 50 counties (of the 254 total) are affected by the storm and rainfall. Clearly that makes mutual aid a big challenge.
• In my opinion tweets from President Trump about how great intergovernmental activities are going are neither realistic nor helpful for this catastrophic event.

The Diva welcomes comments and additions to this list.

From the Washington Post, early on 8/25, see: Texas in direct path of suddenly intensifying, ‘astounding’ Hurricane Harvey.  [While there is still time to prepare, note that the Texas Extension Disaster Education Network, Texas EDEN, at http://texashelp.tamu.edu/ has a variety of materials on disaster preparation and recovery.]

See also this WashPost article about response capabilities of the federal government.

Update on 8/25. The Diva is getting word from the field about two looming issues:
(1) the availability and competence of the FEMA reservist workforce, many of whom were alienated during Fugate-era changes; and

(2) The large number of undocumented people residing in Texas communities near the Mexico border. They are wary of going to FEMA-sponsored shelters for fear of coming to the attention of Immigration officials, who also work for DHS.

Now here are some additional unusual issues:

• The unusually large amount of rain expected. Here is one account: Outer bands of Hurricane Harvey swipe Texas as more residents flee. An excerpt:

The combination of heavy rain, “life-threatening” storm surges, flooding and strong winds could leave wide swaths of South Texas “uninhabitable for weeks or months,” the National Weather Service in Houston said. Such daunting language hasn’t been seen by CNN’s experts since Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,800 people dead in 2005.

•  The substantial no. of key staff vacancies in federal agencies. See: Natural Disaster Response Test.