Hurricane Harvey

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#Environment
August 27, 2017 / 2:36 AM / an hour ago
A week after Harvey, cities deluged and one million displaced
Mica Rosenberg, Emily Flitter
PORT ARTHUR, Texas (Reuters) - A week after Hurricane Harvey came ashore in Texas, no let-up in rescue efforts was expected on Friday as large pockets of land remained under water after one of the costliest natural disasters to hit the United States.

The storm has displaced over a million people, with 44 feared dead from flooding that paralyzed Houston, swelled river levels to record highs and knocked out the drinking water supply in Beaumont, Texas, a city of about 120,000 people.

U.S. fuel shortages from Harvey to hamper Labor Day travel
Devika Krishna Kumar, Jarrett Renshaw
August 31, 2017 / 6:59 PM / 12 hours ago

Supply shortages have developed even though there are nearly a quarter of a billion barrels of gasoline stockpiled in the United States. But much of it is held in places where it cannot be accessed due to massive floods, or too far away from the places it is needed. Some of it is unfinished, meaning it needs to be blended before it can go to gas stations.

Harvey has highlighted another weakness in the system: pipeline terminals typically only have a five-day supply in storage to load into the lines.

Some of the biggest pipelines in the United States, supplying the northeast market and the Chicago area, have already shut down or reduced operations because they have no fuel to pump.

“Gasoline is very much a ‘just-in-time’ fuel, for as many million barrels as they think we have,” said Patrick DeHaan, petroleum analyst at GasBuddy. “Sure, they are somewhere, but they still have to be mixed and blended together.”

At least two East Coast refiners, including Philadelphia Energy Solutions and Irving Oil, have already run out of gasoline for immediate delivery as they have rushed to send supplies to the U.S. Southeast, Caribbean, Mexico and South America to offset the lack of exports since Harvey, sources said.

Wholesale gasoline and jet fuel prices have soared as at least 4.4 million barrels per day of refining capacity, or nearly 24 percent of total U.S. capacity, has been closed due to the record rains.

Also, soils in the area are mostly clay-based, and not very porous at all.