Harvey Slams Into Houston Area Hurricane Harvey is turning into one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. The Houston area was the hardest hit. Winds of up to 132 miles per hour and unrelenting rainfall have inflicted $125 billion of damage. Over 300,000 structures and 500,000 vehicles were damaged, displacing 32,000 people. Houston's two airports were shut down, and flooding closed most roadways. Houston-area oil refineries were also shut down, eliminating about 20 percent of the state's gasoline supply. Source: News accounts of August-September 2017. NOTE: An external shock can disrupt both the demand and supply sides of the economy. The damage caused by Hurricane Harvey to transportation and production systems made supplying output more difficult, more time-consuming, and more expensive