From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the Daily.

Today,

one year ago, Houston thought it was prepared for Hurricane Harvey.

Now, as another major hurricane approaches the US coast,

the story of how Harvey's flood waters overwhelmed Houston's emergency systems

and how one family found out they were on their own.

It's Thursday, September 13th.

I've always been fascinated with weather since I was a kid.

Me and my uncle, we used to go chase tornadoes.

I remember this one time. I remember...

I don't know how old I was, I was like eight or nine, something like that.

We were down in the ditch and we were watching these tornadoes.

There were just three of them just like in a line just moving across the sky.

It was amazing.

You know, like watching the thunderheads and the supercells form and the clouds

and when the air masses mix and then just watching how the clouds just change colors

and change shape and forms and then the winds picks up and it gets cool

and you just feel the pressure change in the air and the smell.

You know, it's just fresh, it's a fresh, fresh, clean smell.

It's like it's alive, but it's not alive.

It doesn't have a heartbeat and a soul, but it's like it does.

You know, it's like a living, breathing thing that just forms and has all this power.

...