Mountains of Harvey debris plagues Kingwood neighborhood

ByJeff Ehling KTRK logo

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Mountains of debris plagues Kingwood neighborhood

Officials spent the day in Kingwood listening to residents concerned about the growing mounds of debris after Harvey.

KINGWOOD, Texas (KTRK) -- Debris removal is underway in many heavily-damaged neighborhoods across Houston. Heavy-duty garbage trucks began picking up the piles of debris in Kingwood Monday morning.

Both the city of Houston and Harris County are making debris removal a top priority during the recovery phase of last week's storm.

The problem is there are so many areas hit by flooding that the city and county need help getting all of it picked up.

Our neighbors in San Antonio sent the fleet of heavy trucks to begin what the Mayor Sylvester Turner hopes will be a job that will not take months to complete.

Crews begin removing mounds of debris from flooded neighborhoods.

"Let's wrap up this really aggressively," Turner said of the debris operation. "Let's have as many contractors as we need, but I need a crew in every sector of the city to be out picking up debris."

Officials want residents to help them out and divide their waste into separately organized piles. They strongly advised not to pile household trash with debris.

The piles should then be divided into different categories:

Vegetation, which includes tree limbs

Construction and demolition products, which includes carpeting and padding

Appliances

Electronics

Hazardous waste

Vehicle owners are also being urged to keep their automobiles off the roads while debris pickup takes place.

The Fort Bend County OEM also is reminding homeowners to keep the debris out of bags. If it is in bags it will not be able to be removed from the curb.

In Chambers County, debris removal is expected to begin on Thursday, Sept. 7.