Severe Weather in Houston: Officials Still Working on Recovery

HOUSTON — It’s been a non-stop month for the Houston Emergency Operations Center, with all hands on deck.

Several episodes of severe weather this month have put the center on high alert and much busier than normal.

“We started on April 26 with the storm in the Kingwood area. Then we went to the derecho,” said Thomas Munos, acting director of the Houston Office of Emergency Management.

The powerful windstorm that swept through Harris County left behind extensive damage and thousands of families without power. Munoz said the derecho was something the area hadn’t seen in a long time.

“In 1986, you know, we found out that an incident had occurred in Lake Livingston,” he said. “Like I said, this is an anomaly. And it happened so quickly.”

The city is now trying to quantify the total cost of these storms.

“Capturing everything that was spent, everything that was used for the storm and all the damage that followed,” Munoz said. “So there is a process.”

While this process is underway, debris removal is a major priority.

“We’re looking at about 400,000 cubic meters of debris, with an estimate of 1.5 million cubic meters,” Munoz said. “That’s all we’ve been working on, so the solid waste department has been working non-stop.”

But as more severe weather hit the Houston area earlier this week, cleanup efforts became an even bigger challenge.

“They do a sweep and all of a sudden there’s debris,” Munoz said.

And if you feel like the Houston area has been particularly hard hit by back-to-back storms, you’re not alone.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time now,” Munoz said. “This is the first season we’ve started like this that I can remember. It’s concerning.”

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