Sept 18
Houston City Council Member Dave Martin would like to remind District E residents that the process to clean up storm debris is going to take time and over the last few weeks we have made great strides. In the Kingwood and Lake Houston Area Council Member Martin has secured the assistance of the City of San Antonio Solid Waste Management Department as well as a City of Houston contractor DRC Emergency Services. These crews are working 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., seven days a week, to help restore our community.
The District E office has just been made aware that San Antonio crews will be revisiting areas that include Royal Shores, Kings Point, and Fosters Mill in an effort to completely close out these communities, freeing up resources in the future to fully tackle the rest of the community. This news came to our office after a San Antonio Solid Waste Department strategy meeting. The San Antonio crews are now focused on clearing out complete communities to eliminate a need for additional passes. The San Antonio crews are continuing to work diligently and are committed to assisting our area clean up as quickly as possible.
Due to the varying sizes of each individual neighborhood, debris piles per home, and sheer amount of devastation in our area, there is no timeline for first or second pickups of debris. To assist the debris removal crews please take a look at this chart so that your debris pile can be addressed. There have been some homes in which their first pass is well over 7 tons alone, which makes timing very hard to predict. Additionally, once a truck is filled, it then must make a trip to the landfill in Atascocita for dumping. This trip to the landfill which includes weighing and document completion takes on average two hours. These factors make it impossible to estimate when these trucks will make it into individual communities.
Continued patience from residents is appreciated. Like many other areas in the City, District E is doing all that it can with very limited resources. To date, the San Antonio crews have completed their first pass through the following communities: Royal Shores, Kings Point, Fosters Mill, The Enclave, Riverchase Section 1, The Commons (Huffman), and Lake Houston Marina (Huffman). Crews are currently in Kingwood Greens Village, Kingwood Lakes Village, and The Barrington. The crews still need to collect debris in Magnolia Cove, Magnolia Cove Brownstones, Magnolia Point (Huffman), Riverbend, Riverchase Section 2, Sandcreek Village, Woodstream Village, Woodspring Village, Dunnam Road, Hueni Road, Dogwood Lane, Worley Acres, Kings Forest, Kings Harbor, Kingwood Villas/Country Club, Kings River (Clear Sky Drive, Amber Cove Drive), Bear Branch Village (Wildwood Ridge and Maple Park Drive), Trailwood Village, Deer Ridge Estates, Deer Cove, Forest Cove, North Shore, and Belleau Woods.
The San Antonio crews have picked up over 2,000 tons of debris from Kingwood Greens, Kingwood Lakes, and The Barrington, which are just three neighborhoods that are part of a long list of affected areas. In total as of Saturday, September 16, the San Antonio crews have collected over 12,000 tons of debris and completed more than 900 loads since they arrived in the Kingwood area on September 4.
The District E Office will be in touch with individual HOAs to provide 24-hour notice before the debris removal trucks enter your community. This notice is given so that residents can clear their roadways and be prepared to assist the San Antonio crews by moving their debris piles forward on their lawn to make sure that all debris is picked up on the first pass. The arm on the grappler truck only reaches about ten to sixteen feet so if residents can push their trash forward while the truck are onsite that will increase the productivity of the crews. Please make sure to acknowledge these crews when you see them as they have left their homes and families in San Antonio to help our community.
The District E Staff has personally surveyed all areas of debris in the north sector including communities that are part of Kingwood, Forest Cove, Huffman, and Lake Houston Area. Additionally, staff has the south part of District E including Bay Oaks, Bay Pointe, Brook Forest, Meadowcreek Village, Meadowgreen, Northfork, Oak Meadows, Freeway Manor North & South, Pipers Meadow, Oakbrook West, University Green, Northshore, Arlington Heights, Gulf Palms, and Forest Oaks. Our staff is committed to getting resources into these areas affected by flooding and is making the most of the resources available.
We encourage residents that have been affected by Hurricane Harvey to report damage to City of Houston 3-1-1 by calling (713) 837-0311 and make sure that the City of Houston has record of your damage. This 3-1-1 report is crucial and assists with the City's report to the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). You may also provide your address and individual service request number to assist the District E staff in keeping precise flood damage records. Thank you for your continued patience as we work to get the Lake Houston Area back on its feet.
For more information on debris clean up, please contact the District E office at (832) 393-3008 or via email at districte@houstontx.gov.
Sept 7
Houston Council Member Dave Martin has been organizing debris pick up with the City of San Antonio Solid Waste Management Department. On Sunday, September 3, San Antonio fleet arrived in the Kingwood area to assist with storm and flood debris clean up. The City of San Antonio has brought in thirty 18-wheeler dumpster trucks and fifteen grapplers. They have only been in the area working for four days and have already completed 204 loads and picked up 2,332 tons of debris from Royal Shores, Kings Point, and Fosters Mill.
Our staff is working diligently with community management associations and homeowners associations to provide 24-hour notice to communities that will receive service next. Through this long process, we appreciate continued patience as we work through each community. The communities that are being inspected for service tomorrow include Kingwood Greens and The Enclave. Should more communities be put in queue your management association and HOA/POA president will be notified so your community has time to move cars and equipment off of the roadway.
District E staff has canvassed the Kingwood and Huffman Area over the last few days and has all affected blocks on a master list that has been provided to the San Antonio crews. The crews are assessing the streets for mobility in advance of servicing areas because streets full of cars create inefficiencies in the process. The inspection trucks are white Ford F-250 trucks with a maroon City of San Antonio emblem on them, as seen below.
There have been several inquiries for a storm debris pickup schedule. Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide this information as debris piles vary in size from house to house. One neighborhood may be serviced quicker than others due to wider streets, and another neighborhood may take longer because their debris piles are larger. In some cases, a single home has filled one dumpster. After each dump truck is filled, then to the landfill. It takes each dump truck about two hours to get to the landfill and back in service, in the Kingwood area.
District E is grateful to the City of San Antonio for making these resources available to the Kingwood area for the month of September. We are still in the initial pick up phase and other pickups will occur later in the month once all neighborhoods affected by Hurricane Harvey have had their first pile addressed. We appreciate your continued patience as we work to make the most of our limited resources.
The District E office continues to work from remote locations, and the best way to reach the office is districte@houstontx.gov.