A Drone's Eye View of Houston After Hurricane Harvey

Water released through Barker Reservoir outlet inundates neighborhoods west of Houston.

Photo by Luke Abaffy

The historic rainfall from Hurricane Harvey had ceased by the time photo journalist and videographer Luke Abaffy and I arrived in Houston to report on the damage and recovery efforts, but the flooding was far from over. Releases from Addicks and Barker Reservoirs--which together stored over 140 billion gallons of the 1 trillion gallon rainfall total in the Houston area--were still at their peak of just over 13,000 cubic feet per second.

Neighborhoods, business parks, condominiums and freeways downstream of the dams were still underwater. As Abaffy flew his drone over the eerily quiet streets, we could see the tops of multi-story structures sticking up out of the dirty water. With some single-level homes and structures, only the roofs poked out.

Throughout our four days reporting in Houston, the water levels slowly receded as the Army Corps of Engineers gradually tapered the water flows. Residents, business owners and contractors began returning to assess the damage and begin the arduous task of cleanup.

Stay tuned for additional videos and dispatches related to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Blair leads day-to-day operations of the ENR editorial team to ensure brand quality and further best practices. He spearheads ENR's various competitions, including Best Projects and the Award of Excellence, and organizes editorial content at events including the Top Young Professionals conference. A Jesse H. Neal, Construction Media Alliance and AZBEES-award-winning writer and videographer, Blair frequently contributes to ENR’s burgeoning video channel with project tour videos and interviews with industry leaders. He is also a frequent speaker and moderator on topics such as diversity and inclusion, design and jobsite technology, construction means and methods and marketing.

Luke Abaffy was Associate Editor of ENR

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