Determinants of exposure to endocrine disruptors following hurricane Harvey.

Hurricane Harvey was a category four storm that induced catastrophic flooding in the Houston metropolitan area. Following the hurricane there was increased concern regarding chemical exposures due to damage caused by flood waters and emergency excess emissions from industrial facilities. This study utilized personal passive samplers in the form of silicone wristbands in Houston, TX to both assess chemical exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) immediately after the hurricane and determine participant characteristics associated with higher concentrations of exposure. Participants from the Houston-3H cohort (n = 172) wore a wristband for seven days and completed a questionnaire to determine various flood-related and demographic variables. Bivariate and multivariate analysis indicated that living in an area with a high Area Deprivation Index (ADI) (indicative of low socioeconomic status), identifying as Black/African American or Latino, and living in the Houston neighborhoods of Baytown and East Houston were associated with increased exposure to EDCs. These results provide evidence of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic injustices in exposure to EDCs in the Houston Metropolitan Area. Since the multiple regression models conducted did not fully explain exposure (0.047 < R2 < 0.34), more research is needed on the direct sources of EDCs within this area to create effective exposure mitigation strategies.

Multi-scalar and multi-dimensional conceptions of social capital and mental health impacts after disaster: the case of Hurricane Harvey.

While much research investigates how social capital relates to mental health after disasters, less work employs a multi-scalar, multi-dimensional social capital framework. This study applies such a construct to an analysis of novel survey data of approximately 1,000 rural and urban Texans after Hurricane Harvey struck the United States in August 2017. On the individual level, it finds that greater social support is linked to fewer mental health impacts, but that greater civic and organisational engagement is connected to greater mental health impacts. At the community level, it finds that neither a density of bridging social capital organisations nor of bonding social capital organisations is associated with poorer mental health, although a greater number of bonding organisations is related to negative mental health impacts on rural residents. The paper concludes by focusing on how individual and community social capital relationships with mental health are contingent on measurement, scale, and rural or urban location.

Primary Outcomes for Adults Receiving the Unified Protocol after Hurricane Harvey in an Integrated Healthcare Setting.

The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP) has demonstrated efficacy for treating anxiety and depression. However, there are limited effectiveness data when conducted in real-world settings with diverse populations, including those with trauma. We evaluated treatment outcomes in a naturalistic, community setting among 279 adults who received UP following Hurricane Harvey. We examined change in overall clinical severity, depression and anxiety symptoms, functional impairment, and baseline outcome predictors (i.e., demographic characteristics, impact from Hurricane Harvey, co-occurrence of depression and anxiety symptoms). Global clinical severity, depression and anxiety symptoms, and functional impairment decreased by end-of-treatment. Participants experienced global symptom improvement to a lesser degree than demonstrated in efficacy trials. Participants who experienced greater storm impact reported larger reductions in anxiety symptoms than those less impacted by Harvey. Further studies evaluating the effectiveness of the UP post-disaster and with diverse samples are needed.

Assessing Patient Needs During Natural Disasters: Mixed Methods Analysis of Portal Messages Sent During Hurricane Harvey.

BACKGROUND: Patient portals play an important role in connecting patients with their medical care team, which improves patient engagement in treatment plans, decreases unnecessary visits, and reduces costs. During natural disasters, patients' needs increase, whereas available resources, specifically access to care, become limited. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine patients' health needs during a natural crisis by analyzing the electronic messages sent during Hurricane Harvey to guide future disaster planning efforts. METHODS: We explored patient portal use data from a large Greater Houston area health care system focusing on the initial week of the Hurricane Harvey disaster, beginning with the date of landfall, August 25, 2017, to August 31, 2017. A mixed methods approach was used to assess patients' immediate health needs and concerns during the disruption of access to routine and emergent medical care. Quantitative analysis used logistic regression models to assess the predictive characteristics of patients using the portal during Hurricane Harvey. This study also included encounters by type (emergency, inpatient, observation, outpatient, and outpatient surgery) and time (before, during, and after Hurricane Harvey). For qualitative analysis, the content of these messages was examined using the constant comparative method to identify emerging themes found within the message texts. RESULTS: Out of a total of 557,024 patients, 4079 (0.73%) sent a message during Hurricane Harvey, whereas 31,737 (5.69%) used the portal. Age, sex, race, and ethnicity were predictive factors for using the portal and sending a message during the natural disaster. We found that prior use of the patient portal increased the likelihood of portal use during Hurricane Harvey (odds ratio 13.688, 95% CI 12.929-14.491) and of sending a portal message during the disaster (odds ratio 14.172, 95% CI 11.879-16.907). Having an encounter 4 weeks before or after Hurricane Harvey was positively associated with increased use of the portal and sending a portal message. Patients with encounters during the main Hurricane Harvey week had a higher increased likelihood of portal use across all five encounter types. Qualitative themes included: access, prescription requests, medical advice (chronic conditions, acute care, urgent needs, and Hurricane Harvey-related injuries), mental health, technical difficulties, and provider constraints. CONCLUSIONS: The patient portal can be a useful tool for communication between patients and providers to address the urgent needs and concerns of patients as a natural disaster unfolds. This was the first known study to include encounter data to understand portal use compared with care provisioning. Prior use was predictive of both portal use and message sending during Hurricane Harvey. These findings could inform the types of demands that may arise in future disaster situations and can serve as the first step in intentionally optimizing patient portal usability for emergency health care management during natural disasters.

Building disaster resilience using social messaging networks: the WeChat community in Houston, Texas, during Hurricane Harvey.

Analyses of disaster resilience have focused increasingly on the role of social capital and online social networks in recovery. This study complements this field of work by investigating three key issues. First, it examines how a social messaging application, WeChat, helped individuals to access and to mobilise three types of social capital-bonding, bridging, and linking-during Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that made landfall in Louisiana and Texas in the United States in August 2017, resulting in significant flooding and loss of life. Second, it pinpoints and assesses quantitatively how individuals' WeChat group usage and social capital influenced their post-disaster well-being. Third, it demonstrates how a minority and immigrant community in Houston, Texas, overcame the disadvantages commonly observed in other disaster research through the utilisation of social media. The findings of this study should aid governmental and community efforts to foster resilience in the face of natural and human-induced hazards.

Returning to normalcy in the short term: a preliminary examination of recovery from Hurricane Harvey among individuals with home damage.

This study focuses on coastal counties in Texas, United States, affected by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 to gauge the influence of individual and contextual characteristics on people's ability to return to normalcy in the short term. Data from a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Episcopal Health Foundation between October and November 2017 were utilised in the analysis. The paper observes, based on the results of an ordered logistic regression, and contrary to previous work, that age, gender, levels of poverty, and social capital are not significant predictors of a return to normalcy. However, indicators such as whether a person evacuated, if he/she identified as Hispanic/Latino, the extent of damage sustained to one's home, and if one's automobile was damaged or destroyed are shown to affect recovery. A discussion of the potential reasons for these findings is provided as a means of informing future research on disaster recovery.

Hurricane Harvey and Greater Houston households: comparing pre-event preparedness with post-event health effects, event exposures, and recovery.

Most disaster studies rely on convenience sampling and 'after-only' designs to assess impacts. This paper, focusing on Hurricane Harvey (2017) and leveraging a pre-/post-event sample of Greater Houston households (n=71) in the United States, establishes baselines for disaster preparedness and home structure flood hazard mitigation, explores household-level ramifications, and examines how preparedness and mitigation relate to health effects, event exposures, and recovery. Between 70 and 80 per cent of participants instituted preparedness measures. Mitigation actions varied: six per cent had interior drainage systems and 83 per cent had elevated indoor heating/cooling components. Sixty per cent reported home damage. One-half highlighted allergies and two-thirds indicated some level of post-traumatic stress (PTS). Three-quarters worried about family members/friends. The results of generalised linear models revealed that greater pre- event mitigation was associated with fewer physical health problems and adverse experiences, lower PTS, and faster recovery. The study design exposed the broad benefits of home structure flood hazard mitigation for households after Harvey.

Environmental injustice and Hurricane Harvey: A household-level study of socially disparate flood exposures in Greater Houston, Texas, USA.

Environmental justice research on flooding has relied heavily on analyses of aggregated geographic areal units and assessing exposure to 'pre-flood' risks (e.g., residence in 100-year flood zones) rather than actual flood events. To address these limitations, we examined disproportionate exposure to flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 in Greater Houston (Texas). Using primary survey data collected from 377 representative households before Harvey and spatial data on Harvey-induced inundation developed by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, we found that the areal extent of flooding around residents' home sites was distributed inequitably with respect to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES). Hispanic, black and other racial/ethnic minority households experienced more extensive flooding than white households, and lower SES households faced more extensive flooding than higher SES households. Findings align with prior flood risk research in Greater Houston and provide cause for concern, as social inequities in flood exposure may have influenced social disparities in flood impacts and post-disaster needs. Since flood events in Greater Houston are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude due to climate change, socially disparate impacts are likely to become an increasingly salient public policy issue. Thus, proactive approaches for reducing flood risks and ameliorating disparities should be implemented.

A Spatial Analysis of Possible Environmental Exposures in Recreational Areas Impacted by Hurricane Harvey Flooding, Harris County, Texas.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast in August 2017 causing catastrophic flooding. Harris County is highly vulnerable to flooding, which is controlled in part by a system of bayous that include parks and trails. The petrochemical industry, as well as thousands of documented sources of environmental pollution make recreational areas susceptible to environmental contamination during flood events. Recreational areas and toxic exposure sources were geocoded by subwatershed boundaries and overlaid with the area of Hurricane Harvey inundation. A total of 121 of 349 (36.78%) parks were flooded; 102 of 121 (84.30%) were located in subwatersheds with at least one exposure source. A total of 337 exposure sources (6 Superfund, 32 municipal solid waste, and 299 petroleum storage tanks) in 30 subwatersheds were flooded. Though parks provide flood mitigation and other postdisaster benefits, their susceptibility to environmental contamination should be considered, especially in areas with a large number of toxic exposure sources.

Galveston Bay and Coastal Ocean Optical-Geochemical Response to Hurricane Harvey From VIIRS Ocean Color.

Dissolved and particulate organic carbon, suspended particulate matter concentrations, and their optical proxies colored dissolved organic matter absorption and backscattering coefficients were studied in Galveston Bay, Texas, following the extreme flooding of Houston and surrounding areas due to Hurricane Harvey (25-29 August 2017) using field and ocean color observations. A three-step empirical-semianalytic algorithm for determination of colored dissolved organic matter absorption and backscattering coefficients revealed the dynamics of dissolved organic carbon and particle distribution from Visible and Infrared Imaging Radiometric Suite ocean color. Environmental drivers, especially floodwater discharge and winds, strongly influenced the spatiotemporal distribution of dissolved/particulate material in the bay and shelf waters following the hurricane passage. Over 10 days during/following the hurricane, ~25.2 × 106 kg C of total organic carbon and ~314.7 × 106 kg of suspended particulate matter were rapidly exported from Galveston Bay (representing ~0.65% and 0.27% of respective annual Mississippi River fluxes to the Gulf of Mexico), with potential for ecological impacts to shelf waters.

Factors Associated With Poor Health Outcomes Among Vietnamese Americans After Hurricane Harvey, Houston, Texas, 2018-2019.

OBJECTIVE: Immigrants typically experience poor health outcomes after disasters but are often excluded in disaster studies. We assessed physical and mental health outcomes among Houston-area Vietnamese American residents after Hurricane Harvey and hurricane-related characteristics associated with poor health outcomes. METHODS: We conducted in-person structured surveys among 120 Vietnamese Americans from November 2018 through February 2019. We used the physical and mental component scores of the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey to assess health outcomes. We used descriptive statistics for health outcomes and hurricane-related effects and examined the associations between hurricane-related characteristics and health outcomes. RESULTS: Overall mean (95% CI) physical and mental component scores were 39.8 (29.7-49.9) and 32.6 (27.6-37.6), respectively. The odds of poor physical health poststorm were significantly higher among participants reporting ≥5 versus <5 depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR] = 3.04; 95% CI, 1.11-8.29; P = .03) and significantly lower among participants with versus without health insurance (OR = 0.25; 95% CI, 0.09-0.71; P = .01). The odds of experiencing poor mental health more than a year after the hurricane were significantly higher among those sustaining versus not sustaining a serious injury/illness because of the hurricane (OR = 3.34; 95% CI, 1.12-9.94; P = .03) and among those who were married/partnered versus not married/partnered (OR = 4.16; 95% CI, 1.32-13.07; P = .02). Receiving versus not receiving free health care services after the hurricane and having high versus low levels of acculturation protected against poor mental health (P < .05 for both). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight the inequalities of postdisaster health outcomes in this immigrant population and emphasize the need for improved disaster recovery programs that account for these factors.

Effective population size of Culex quinquefasciatus under insecticide-based vector management and following Hurricane Harvey in Harris County, Texas.

Introduction: Culex quinquefasciatus is a mosquito species of significant public health importance due to its ability to transmit multiple pathogens that can cause mosquito-borne diseases, such as West Nile fever and St. Louis encephalitis. In Harris County, Texas, Cx. quinquefasciatus is a common vector species and is subjected to insecticide-based management by the Harris County Public Health Department. However, insecticide resistance in mosquitoes has increased rapidly worldwide and raises concerns about maintaining the effectiveness of vector control approaches. This concern is highly relevant in Texas, with its humid subtropical climate along the Gulf Coast that provides suitable habitat for Cx. quinquefasciatus and other mosquito species that are known disease vectors. Therefore, there is an urgent and ongoing need to monitor the effectiveness of current vector control programs. Methods: In this study, we evaluated the impact of vector control approaches by estimating the effective population size of Cx. quinquefasciatus in Harris County. We applied Approximate Bayesian Computation to microsatellite data to estimate effective population size. We collected Cx. quinquefasciatus samples from two mosquito control operation areas; 415 and 802, during routine vector monitoring in 2016 and 2017. No county mosquito control operations were applied at area 415 in 2016 and 2017, whereas extensive adulticide spraying operations were in effect at area 802 during the summer of 2016. We collected data for eighteen microsatellite markers for 713 and 723 mosquitoes at eight timepoints from 2016 to 2017 in areas 415 and 802, respectively. We also investigated the impact of Hurricane Harvey's landfall in the Houston area in August of 2017 on Cx. quinquefasciatus population fluctuation. Results: We found that the bottleneck scenario was the most probable historical scenario describing the impact of the winter season at area 415 and area 802, with the highest posterior probability of 0.9167 and 0.4966, respectively. We also detected an expansion event following Hurricane Harvey at area 802, showing a 3.03-fold increase in 2017. Discussion: Although we did not detect significant effects of vector control interventions, we found considerable influences of the winter season and a major hurricane on the effective population size of Cx. quinquefasciatus. The fluctuations in effective population size in both areas showed a significant seasonal pattern. Additionally, the significant population expansion following Hurricane Harvey in 2017 supports the necessity for post-hurricane vector-control interventions.

Social support and community embeddedness protect against post-disaster depression among immigrants: a Vietnamese American case study.

Immigrants often face increased vulnerabilities to disaster-related poor health and recovery, compared to mainstream populations. Little is known about Hurricane Harvey's impacts among the storm affected area's large Vietnamese American population. Our study documented diverse psychological experiences and recovery challenges 1 year post-storm among a sample of 120 Vietnamese Americans residing in the Houston, Texas area. Using linear regression modeling, we examined the association between social support and depressive symptom development among these storm-affected Vietnamese Americans. Social support encapsulating both social embeddedness and perceived support was measured by the Louisville Social Support Scale and depressive symptom development was measured by 18 items that assessed emotional distress. These items included loss of appetite, loss of concentration, exposure to persistent pain, and the exhibition of hopelessness, tiredness, sadness, frustration, discouragement, desperation, exhaustion, disgraced, anger, and craziness. We found adverse post-disaster health outcomes, as well as potential avenues to mitigate them, that should be taken into consideration in the design and implementation of inclusive disaster programs. A high level of social support lowered depressive symptomology among Vietnamese Americans post-Hurricane Harvey, even when accounting for Hurricane Harvey-related home damages and injuries/illness. The negative association between social support and depressive symptom development remained after accounting for both post-storm self-rated mental and physical health. Our results suggested that public health practitioners and emergency management entities should prioritize social support resources to foster mental well-being after hurricanes among Vietnamese Americans as future hurricanes are expected to be stronger and more prevalent along the United States Gulf Coast.

Does flooding get worse with subsiding land? Investigating the impacts of land subsidence on flood inundation from Hurricane Harvey.

As one of the most devastating tropical storms, 2017 Hurricane Harvey caused severe flooding and damage in Houston, Texas. Besides enormous rainfall amount, land subsidence might be another contributing factor to the Harvey flood. However, few studies have numerically quantified the evolvement of land subsidence over decades, largely due to the lack of reliable methods to realistically estimate land subsidence both continuously and at high spatial resolution. Therefore, this study aims to investigate retrospective changes of regional topology due to 117 years (1900 to 2017) of land subsidence and the consequent impacts on flood inundation. Based on continuous land subsidence, we conduct a series of simulations on the 2017 Hurricane Harvey in Brays Bayou, Texas using a hydrodynamic/hydraulic model. The results indicate that the overall change of flood depth caused by land subsidence is relatively minor with the flood water deepened by six centimeters per one meter of subsided land at the worst impacted location. The impact from land subsidence on flood depth exhibits strong nonlinearity in time, where effects from previous land subsidence hotspots could be altered by later continuing land subsidence. Spatially, changes in flood depth due to the land subsidence are not only heterogeneous but mixed with coexisting increased and reduced flood depths. The results of this study improve the understanding of the dynamic evolvement of flood inundation due to continuous land subsidence so that better planning can be initiated for sustainable urban development for coastal communities, which is imperative under ongoing climate change and sea level rise.

Adverse Health Outcomes Following Hurricane Harvey: A Comparison of Remotely-Sensed and Self-Reported Flood Exposure Estimates.

Remotely sensed inundation may help to rapidly identify areas in need of aid during and following floods. Here we evaluate the utility of daily remotely sensed flood inundation measures and estimate their congruence with self-reported home flooding and health outcomes collected via the Texas Flood Registry (TFR) following Hurricane Harvey. Daily flood inundation for 14 days following the landfall of Hurricane Harvey was acquired from FloodScan. Flood exposure, including number of days flooded and flood depth was assigned to geocoded home addresses of TFR respondents (N = 18,920 from 47 counties). Discordance between remotely-sensed flooding and self-reported home flooding was measured. Modified Poisson regression models were implemented to estimate risk ratios (RRs) for adverse health outcomes following flood exposure, controlling for potential individual level confounders. Respondents whose home was in a flooded area based on remotely-sensed data were more likely to report injury (RR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.27-1.77), concentration problems (1.36, 95% CI: 1.25-1.49), skin rash (1.31, 95% CI: 1.15-1.48), illness (1.29, 95% CI: 1.17-1.43), headaches (1.09, 95% CI: 1.03-1.16), and runny nose (1.07, 95% CI: 1.03-1.11) compared to respondents whose home was not flooded. Effect sizes were larger when exposure was estimated using respondent-reported home flooding. Near-real time remote sensing-based flood products may help to prioritize areas in need of assistance when on the ground measures are not accessible.

Associating Increased Chemical Exposure to Hurricane Harvey in a Longitudinal Panel Using Silicone Wristbands.

Hurricane Harvey was associated with flood-related damage to chemical plants and oil refineries, and the flooding of hazardous waste sites, including 13 Superfund sites. As clean-up efforts began, concerns were raised regarding the human health impact of possible increased chemical exposure resulting from the hurricane and subsequent flooding. Personal sampling devices in the form of silicone wristbands were deployed to a longitudinal panel of individuals (n = 99) within 45 days of the hurricane and again one year later in the Houston metropolitan area. Using gas chromatography−mass spectroscopy, each wristband was screened for 1500 chemicals and analyzed for 63 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Chemical exposure levels found on the wristbands were generally higher post-Hurricane Harvey. In the 1500 screen, 188 chemicals were detected, 29 were detected in at least 30% of the study population, and of those, 79% (n = 23) were found in significantly higher concentrations (p < 0.05) post-Hurricane Harvey. Similarly, in PAH analysis, 51 chemicals were detected, 31 were detected in at least 30% of the study population, and 39% (n = 12) were found at statistically higher concentrations (p < 0.05) post-Hurricane Harvey. This study indicates that there were increased levels of chemical exposure after Hurricane Harvey in the Houston metropolitan area.

Resident perceptions of the short- and long-term impacts of Hurricane Harvey.

Severe storms and flooding events are expected to increase in frequency and severity, with lasting economic, social, and psychological impacts on communities in post-disaster recovery. In the first mixed methods study to focus on the experiences of Houstonians during Hurricane Harvey, which resulted in unprecedented and widespread flooding and billions of dollars in damage, we conducted five focus groups from four neighborhoods almost two years after Harvey made landfall. Our purpose was to understand how residents withstood and recovered from flooding-related stressors, what the major sources of support were and what long-term issues they were still dealing with. Residents relied on their families, friends, and neighborhood networks offline and online to seek important information about the storm and coordinate rescue efforts. They turned to their friends and neighbors for help with cleaning their homes and received support and donations from church and volunteer groups, while in one neighborhood residents organized themselves and coordinated aid and clean-up activities. Contrasting with this initial surge of social support that was perceived as overwhelmingly positive, the process of applying for federal aid was confusing, and residents reported continued stress and mental health strain. The experiences of Houston residents echo those of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy survivors, particularly when seeking federal assistance, an experience that continued to exacerbate post-disaster stress. Enhanced state and local disaster response mechanisms, as well engaged partnerships between community stakeholders, academics and policy makers have the potential to improve community resilience, particularly in the natural and industrial disaster-prone greater Houston area.

Hospital Preparedness, Mitigation, and Response to Hurricane Harvey in Harris County, Texas.

OBJECTIVE: This case study documents Harris County hospitals' flood preparedness and mitigation efforts before Hurricane Harvey, their collective response experience during Hurricane Harvey, and their lessons learned in the storm's aftermath. METHODS: The case study was constructed using a survey of hospital emergency managers, semi-structured interviews with local agencies involved in public health, emergency management, and health care, and an analysis of news reports and other documents from a variety of government agencies, local organizations, and hospitals themselves. RESULTS: Harris County hospitals learned their most valuable lessons through their direct and repeated experience with flooding over the years, leading to improved preparedness before Hurricane Harvey. Hospital emergency response successes included infrastructure improvements, staff resilience, advanced planning, and pre-established collaboration. However, hospitals still experienced challenges with staff burnout, roadway flooding, and patient evacuation. CONCLUSIONS: Although the current state of hospital flood preparedness and mitigation is rather advanced and mature, it is advisable that Harris County takes steps to strengthen emergency management efforts in hospitals with fewer financial and staffing resources and less direct flood experience.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Houston Parks After Hurricane Harvey.

Unprecedented inland precipitation and catastrophic flooding associated with Hurricane Harvey potentially redistributed contaminants from industrial sites and transportation infrastructure to recreational areas that make up networks of green infrastructure, creeks, and waterways used for flood control throughout the Greater Houston Area. Sediment samples were collected in parks located near the Buffalo Bayou watershed 1 week after Hurricane Harvey made landfall and again 7 weeks later. Total concentrations of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) 16 priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured in each sample at both time points. Diagnostic ratios were calculated to improve understanding of potential sources of PAHs after flooding. Diagnostic ratios suggest vehicular traffic to be a potential source for PAHs in parks. Although the concentrations of PAHs in all samples were below EPA actionable levels, given that no background values were available for comparison, it is difficult to quantify the impact flooding from Hurricane Harvey had on PAH concentrations in Houston parks. However, given the high frequency of flooding in Houston, and the concentration of industrial facilities and transportation infrastructure adjacent to recreation areas, these data demonstrate that PAHs were still present after unprecedented flooding. This study may also serve as a baseline for future efforts to understand the environmental health impacts of disasters.

Using search-constrained inverse distance weight modeling for near real-time riverine flood modeling: Harris County, Texas, USA before, during, and after Hurricane Harvey.

Flooding poses a serious public health hazard throughout the world. Flood modeling is an important tool for emergency preparedness and response, but some common methods require a high degree of expertise or may be unworkable due to poor data quality or data availability issues. The conceptually simple method of inverse distance weight modeling offers an alternative. Using stream gauges as inputs, this study interpolated stream elevation via inverse distance weight modeling under 15 different model input parameter scenarios for Harris County, Texas, USA, from August 25th to September 15th, 2017 (before, during, and after Hurricane Harvey inundated the county). A digital elevation model was used to identify areas where modeled stream elevation exceeded ground elevation, indicating flooding. Imagery and observed high water marks were used to validate the models' outputs. There was a high degree of agreement (between 79 and 88%) between imagery and model outputs of parameterizations visually validated. Quantitative validations based on high water marks were also positive, with a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of in excess of .6 for all parameterizations relative to a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of the benchmark of 0.56. Inverse distance weight modeling offers a simple, accurate method for first-order estimations of riverine flooding in near real-time using readily available data, and outputs are robust to some alterations to input parameters.