Why is Hurricane Harvey important to countries outside the U.S.?

Because this could be your country next. India went through something like this recently in their monsoons by the way where whole busloads of people were washed away and lost off of roads there. I have also recounted my experience of almost dying on the road to Hana on Maui around 1990 there which was in this direction too. So, why is Hurricane Harvey important to you?

Your country may be next to lose one or more cities from basic functionality for weeks, months or years similar to or exceeding Hurricane Katrina.

If you look at the excruciatingly slow  speed of this storm it could devastate not only South Eastern Texas but up to 12 inches are also coming down on places like Lake Charles in Louisiana and rain bands are now thundering down as far away as Mississippi and I believe Florida and Arkansas as well.

So, more than one metropolitan area may be dysfunctional for days, weeks, months or years from all this as well as hundreds of municipalities in 3 or 4 states.

So, in some ways this is the single most serious weather event to hit the U.S. since Hurricane Sandy.

 

Hurricane Sandy - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy

Hurricane Sandy was the deadliest and most destructive hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, and the second-costliest hurricane in United States ...

Highest winds‎: ‎1-minute sustained‎: 115 mph ...

Formed‎: ‎October 22, 2012

Damage‎: ‎$75 billion (2012 USD); (‎Second-cos...

Fatalities‎: ‎233 total (direct and indirect)