Houston expects first debris cleanup to be complete by early to mid-August – Houston Public Media

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The city of Houston hopes to have its first debris cleanup operation completed by early to mid-August, about 30 days after crews began picking up downed trees, fallen branches and other items from sidewalks after Hurricane Beryl swept through the city.

Mark Wilfalk, director of the City of Houston’s Department of Solid Waste Management, said Houston Matters with Craig Cohen As of Monday, the city is about halfway through its first round of collections and has collected more than a million cubic yards of yard waste in the first 17 days since collection began.

“We’ve been in great shape for about 17 days,” Wilfalk said. “We’ve lost about four or five days to bad weather, and we’re already at a million cubic meters.”

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Meanwhile, the city of Sugar Land is also halfway through its first round of debris removal, which was expected to take four weeks. Dawn Steph, the city of Sugar Land’s executive director, said Houston counts The city “activated its contractors” ahead of Beryl’s passage, allowing workers to begin cleaning up debris the Friday after the storm (July 12).

The city has brought in additional equipment and hopes to have its first pass completed within three weeks, around August 2.

“In the worst case, the first pass takes four weeks,” Steph said.

Natalie Weber / Houston Public Media

She added that the timeline is quite realistic given the amount of debris the city is facing.

“That’s the reality,” Steph said. “We have huge trees that have fallen in our city that are being brought to the curb. So there’s a significant amount of cubic yards sitting on the curb. So it takes time to get them picked up. There’s really no way to speed up the process when every front yard of every house is almost completely filled with trees and debris.”

As the region marks three weeks since the hurricane hit, Wilfalk said the city of Houston’s goal is similar: to complete the first pass within 30 days. City crews and three other contracted departments are engaged in the cleanup process, he said.

“People should expect to see the majority of this debris clear within the next three and a half weeks,” Wilfalk said.

He explained that the process is more granular than power restoration, where a single repair can restore power to many homes or neighborhoods.

“Every home needs to be serviced individually, which requires a certain level of individual attention,” he said. “And when you’re dealing with 60-, 70-, or even 100-year-old trees that have fallen and need to be cut down, it’s certainly going to be a lengthy process that requires some patience.”

Putting the mess into context

Traci Riley

Wilfalk put the debris collection into context, comparing the post-Beryl process to what happened after the May derecho that knocked out power and scattered debris across parts of the city. He said that in just over a month after the derecho, the city collected about 1.7 million cubic yards of debris for an event that only affected about half the city. However, after Beryl, the city is approaching that same amount in just over two weeks.

“So this is undoubtedly a monumental task that we are undertaking,” he said.

Other options

The City of Houston has an interactive map of where its debris has been collected so far and operates a handful of neighborhood drop-off sites where residents can bring their own debris if they are able.

“We might even consider opening more just to give residents the ability to drop them off or bring them to a location if they need to,” Wilfalk said.

Sugar Land also has an interactive map but does not have any drop off sites at this time.

“It’s something we’ll be taking into consideration going forward for future events,” Steph said.