Catastrophic Incident Search and Rescue

During a visit to Sector Houston-Galveston following Hurricane Harvey, then-Coast Guard District 8 Commander Rear Admiral Paul Thomas observed that, in the context of a training exercise, most people would have criticized the Harvey scenario as unrealistic. The irony, of course, is that it really happened. The far-fetched Harvey scenario actually unfolded along the Texas coast beginning with the storm's initial landfall on Aug 25, 2017. Over the next several days, Hurricane Harvey would take the lives of 68 people, cause more than $125 billion in damage, shatter historical rainfall records, and test the limits of first responders, including the U.S. Coast Guard.