Government officials have been talking for years about the urgent need to upgrade America’s old and crumbling infrastructure. In many parts of the country, though, infrastructure investment has been minimal or nonexistent. A case in point is southeastern Texas where portions of the region’s levee system are proving no match for the ferocious flood waters of Hurricane Harvey.

In Port Arthur, Texas, about 90 miles east of Houston, residents are experiencing a nightmare flood caused in part by the delay in infrastructure upgrades. A levee that protects Port Arthur and surrounding Jefferson County failed three weeks before Harvey even hit the Gulf Coast of Texas.

In early August, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a warning that the failed levee “could compromise a portion of Jefferson County south of Beaumont — mainly Port Arthur and its surrounding refineries — if a tropical storm or hurricane hit the area.” Unfortunately, the Army Corps’ predictions came true.

An evacuation center in Port Arthur, TX flooded overnight, with water nearly reaching the top of cots at the shelter https://t.co/glht9ggmcR pic.twitter.com/BaSglewnfQ — CNN (@CNN) August 30, 2017

With the record rainfall from Harvey, Port Arthur’s mayor reportedly said the city is underwater, referring to the situation as “survival mode.” The city’s residents have resorted to using social media to request immediate help for themselves and their friends and family from the rising flood waters.


Evacuation centers in Port Arthur are reportedly getting inundated by flood waters. Water has entered the city’s Bob Bowers Civic Center. Officials are using bleachers inside the civic center to keep evacuees off the floor.

Crumbling infrastructure played a major role in the destruction of a large part of New Orleans in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina. There were more than 50 failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans, resulting in flooding that impacted 80 percent of the city.

Billions of dollars have been spent to shore up New Orleans’ levee system since 2005. However, there is still much to be done to protect residents from more frequent and severe floods. A few weeks ago, the city’s drainage system could not handle some strong storms, leading to flooding at a couple of hundred properties. The city’s flood systems could be put to the test again as the heaviest rains of Harvey slowly make their way to New Orleans.

In Florida, officials are concerned about a major storm leading to a disastrous flooding event at Lake Okeechobee where officials have been slow to upgrade the barriers that surround the lake. According to experts, rising waters from prolonged heavy rains could cause a New Orleans-like failure of the levee surrounding the lake that is used to protect south Florida from flooding.

People in #PortArthur evacuated #Harvey to Bob Bob Bower Civic Center They are now being re-evacuated to the Carl Parker Center pic.twitter.com/U7Qp9hYz0O — Juan Rodríguez (@_JuanRodriguez_) August 30, 2017

More rain puts more pressure on the Lake Okeechobee levee. When the water has risen that high in the past, emergency measures have been taken to fix eroding earth beneath the levee or cavities in the structure itself. Despite $800 million worth of repairs over the past decade, the Army Corps had fixed only 22 miles of the 143 miles of levee that surround the lake as of 2016.


Residents in Port Arthur are now experiencing what could happen to communities around Lake Okeechobee if the levee upgrades are not completed before the next major storm. In an August 4 press release, the Army Corps warned that as a result of the Port Arthur floodwall’s condition, “we do not have confidence that it could withstand a local tropical storm or hurricane.” The Army Corps and the Jefferson County Drainage District No. 7 jointly manage the levee that was breached.

The Army Corps said at the time that it was working “diligently on a temporary measure to be constructed immediately, while a more long term repair is pursued.” The work was not completed in time to protect the county from Harvey’s historic rains.

President Donald Trump has said that infrastructure would be a top priority of his presidency. The centerpiece of the president’s infrastructure agenda is his proposed wall on the border with Mexico, a project that would mesh with his anti-immigrant policy. Last week, Trump threatened a government shutdown over his proposed wall on the border with Mexico if Congress did not provide billions of dollars in funding for it.

As part of his “infrastructure week” in June, Trump also focused on privatizing air traffic control, but he did not address the need to shore up infrastructure in cities or surrounding areas from the effects of climate change. In fact, in the weeks leading up to Harvey’s landfall Trump revoked Obama-era guidance which stipulated that infrastructure projects built with federal money be constructed to withstand stronger floods.

Reducing flood risk in cities like Houston will require large investments in improved infrastructure. Such actions would need to take into account that what was once a 500-year-flood is now closer to a 1-in-50 year event, Mashable Senior Science Editor Andrew Freedman reported Tuesday.