2017 Hurricane Harvey

Overview

Hurricane Harvey is a tropical cyclone which caused major flooding in southeastern Texas in late August 2017.

Background

In early August, a tropical wave was discovered off the coast of Africa. On August 17th, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded the weather disturbance to Tropical Storm Harvey. On August 24th, the storm began intensifying and was upgraded to a hurricane. On August 26th, the hurricane approached Rockport, Texas and moved to Copano Bay. On August 26th, Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm.

Developments

Online Reaction

On August 24th, Twitter user @zwearts posted a photoshopped picture of the hurricane with comedian Steve Harvey's face photoshopped in the center (shown below). That day, Redditor Trippstarr21 posted a news station's aerial photograph of a car driving the opposite direction of traffic evacuating a hurricane area with the caption "Forgot my charger" (shown below, right). Within 72 hours, the post gained over 13,000 points (94% upvoted) and 260 comments on /r/funny.^[1]

Also on August 24th, the @ComedyCentral Twitter feed posted an animated GIF of Steve Harvey's head spinning in a hurricane (shown below).

The following day, Redditor RNews_Mod submitted a thread for the hurricane to /r/news,^[3] where it garnered more than 1,400 points (93% upvoted) and 1,800 comments within 48 hours.

Harvey the Hurricane Hawk

On August 25th, 2017, Houston cab driver William Bruso uploaded a YouTube video of a Cooper's hawk in the passenger seat of his taxi, speculating that the bird was seeking refuge from the hurricane (shown below).

Over the next 24 hours, Bruso uploaded several update videos to YouTube about the status of the bird, nicknaming him "Harvey the Hurricane Hawk" (shown below). The following day, Bruso handed the hawk over to the TWRC Wildlife Center (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References