Pandemic. Recession. Oil bust. How Houston weathered economic collapse under COVID-19 FacebookTwitterEmail 1of4 Abandoned tanks in Penwell in April. A sudden and devastating oil crash pounded the energy sector,which was still recovering from the deep, two-year oil bust that ended in 2016Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less 2of4 3of4 Brick and mortar retailers were particularly hurt by the pandemic.Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less 4of4 A man walks through an almost completely empty parking lot at Franklin and La Branch Streets in March.Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less Back in January, economists predicted a fairly routine 2020. The global economy was expected to grow a healthy 3.3 percent, buoyed by hopes that trade tensions between the United States and China were easing.