COASTRR: COASTAL STORM RAPID RESPONSE MEASUREMENTS OF HURRICANE HARVEY IMPACT AND RECOVERY ON TWO TEXAS BARRIER ISLANDS

The COAstal STorm Rapid Response (COASTRR) system has been implemented to measure hydro-dynamic, morphodynamic, and sedimentary processes occurring along coastlines during storm impact and subsequent recovery. Relatively few measurements are available to evaluate the physical processes shaping coastal systems during extreme storm events, nor to assess post-storm system recovery (e.g. Sherwood et al., 2014). Prior to landfall of Hurricane Harvey, instruments to collect high-resolution in-situ hydrodynamic measure-ments across two different barrier island transects on the upper Texas Gulf Coast were deployed before and recovered after the storm. Hurricane Harvey struck the central Texas Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm on August 25, 2017 causing severe infrastructure damage and erosion near its landfall location but generating mostly accretional features at the two field sites on Hog Island and Follets Island, respectively, which were located more than 160 miles northeast of Harvey’s landfall location.