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Post Derecho Cleanup

5,273 Views | 48 Replies | Last: 7 mo ago by P.H. Dexippus
Foamcows
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9:40a, 6/7/24
AG
Curious, but does anyone have any news on the plan for cleaning up all the trees, downed low voltage wiring, and misc. trash from the storm?

Here in the first ward, its looking pretty rough. We still have several trees that are partially blocking the road/sidewalks that it seems like the homeowners are refusing to take care of, and are expecting the city/power company to handle it. They are trying to claim that its in between the sidewalk and the street, so its not their responsibility.

I got lucky, just had a few branches fall, and put everything into a small pile that I eventually cut up and put in this weeks trash. It had only been a few weeks, but the amount of cockroaches, frogs, and just decay in that pile was pretty impressive. I can only imagine what is growing inside these larger piles.
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James Forsyth
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In reply to Foamcows • 9:51a, 6/7/24
Foamcows said:
Curious, but does anyone have any news on the plan for cleaning up all the trees, downed low voltage wiring, and misc. trash from the storm?

Here in the first ward, its looking pretty rough. We still have several trees that are partially blocking the road/sidewalks that it seems like the homeowners are refusing to take care of, and are expecting the city/power company to handle it. They are trying to claim that its in between the sidewalk and the street, so its not their responsibility.

I got lucky, just had a few branches fall, and put everything into a small pile that I eventually cut up and put in this weeks trash. It had only been a few weeks, but the amount of cockroaches, frogs, and just decay in that pile was pretty impressive. I can only imagine what is growing inside these larger piles.
In my neighborhood the piles are just baking out and becoming a nice fire hazard. No clue when they'll get picked up.
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chico
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9:54a, 6/7/24
AG
I've seen crews picking up north and south of you (Woodland Heights and 6th Ward). They seem to get only tree debris (no heavy trash) and only if it's on the curb/street (won't get from your yard). I heard they're taking everything to make mulch somewhere up North Yale.
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El Gallo Blanco
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10:04a, 6/7/24
I see the crews out here and there, and a ton of them aree stationed in the parking lot of the former Northwest Mall. It is just insane how extensive the storm damage is. I don't know if a hurricane could ever inflict as much widespread damage, given the buffer between us and the coast. I like to believe that they are working tirelessly to get everything cleaned up, but that the damage just stretched such a gigantic area that it is taking an unusually long time.

We went to a splash pad in Timbergrove before lunch 2 weekends ago and it looked post-apocalyptic. The effort it would take to clean up that park alone seemed daunting. Then there were the residential streets with huge debris piles in almost every yard. And I thought our area of Cypress got hit hard...well it did, but we just don't have the level of mature trees you see inside and near the loop.
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jetch17
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10:18a, 6/7/24
AG
We went down to Hughies last night and coming down W18th looked like hell
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chico
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10:22a, 6/7/24
AG
Timbergrove and 5th Ward

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Foamcows
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10:24a, 6/7/24
AG
anyone know which person or team is responsible for the cleanup efforts and if they have any formal plan? (probably a bit of a stretch knowing our government, but worth asking.)
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redag06
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In reply to El Gallo Blanco • 10:25a, 6/7/24
Were you here for Ike?

A hurricane will create FAR more widespread damage.
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lunchbox
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10:34a, 6/7/24
They were picking up branches and debris on Crosstimbers and Lockwood yesterday.
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El Gallo Blanco
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In reply to redag06 • 10:37a, 6/7/24
redag06 said:
Were you here for Ike?

A hurricane will create FAR more widespread damage.
Yes...I disagree. I don't remember near this much damage in Heights/Timbergrove or especially extending out to the far NW burbs during Ike. Go drive I-10 through the east side of Houston. Almsot every roof within a 2 mile radius of me in Cypress has tarps on it...it could take months to get our roof replaced.

My friends and I were driving around during the middle of Ike and partying like idiots. I don't remember downed trees left and right in Oak Forest and Timbergrove. Or almost every roof needing repair or replacement in large stretches of Cypress.

Any hurricane that would bring sustained 100+ mph winds to Cypress would probably level galveston and Bolivar to the foundations. I could be wrong, but I genuinely don't remember Ike being this bad, spanning such a vast area. I wonder what the damages side by side (adjusted for inflation) would be?
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Mega Lops
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10:42a, 6/7/24
AG
"Derecho" is super word cringe. Might be worse than "The Rib."
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dBoy99
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10:43a, 6/7/24
AG
NW Houston, 290 & 610, Oak Forest - piles of limbs and wood along the curb.

No sign of pick-up.
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astroaggie27
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10:49a, 6/7/24
They've been clearing out section 17 of Oak Forest this week. Problem is they can only do a few houses at a time before having to unload.
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dBoy99
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In reply to astroaggie27 • 10:51a, 6/7/24
AG
Man, I still drive by piles of limbs on 43rd every day.
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BillYeoman
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In reply to El Gallo Blanco • 10:55a, 6/7/24
El Gallo Blanco said:
redag06 said:
Were you here for Ike?

A hurricane will create FAR more widespread damage.
Yes...I disagree. I don't remember near this much damage in Heights/Timbergrove or especially extending out to the far NW burbs during Ike. Go drive I-10 through the east side of Houston. Almsot every roof within a 2 mile radius of me in Cypress has tarps on it...it could take months to get our roof replaced.

My friends and I were driving around during the middle of Ike and partying like idiots. I don't remember downed trees left and right in Oak Forest and Timbergrove. Or almost every roof needing repair or replacement in large stretches of Cypress.

Any hurricane that would bring sustained 100+ mph winds to Cypress would probably level galveston and Bolivar to the foundations. I could be wrong, but I genuinely don't remember Ike being this bad, spanning such a vast area. I wonder what the damages side by side (adjusted for inflation) would be?


Ike caused A LOT more damage than the storm we experienced a few weeks ago. Blue tarps on a lot of roofs, fences down, trees down. And I lived in Northwest Houston during Ike.
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El Gallo Blanco
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In reply to BillYeoman • 12:17p, 6/7/24
BillYeoman said:
El Gallo Blanco said:
redag06 said:
Were you here for Ike?

A hurricane will create FAR more widespread damage.
Yes...I disagree. I don't remember near this much damage in Heights/Timbergrove or especially extending out to the far NW burbs during Ike. Go drive I-10 through the east side of Houston. Almsot every roof within a 2 mile radius of me in Cypress has tarps on it...it could take months to get our roof replaced.

My friends and I were driving around during the middle of Ike and partying like idiots. I don't remember downed trees left and right in Oak Forest and Timbergrove. Or almost every roof needing repair or replacement in large stretches of Cypress.

Any hurricane that would bring sustained 100+ mph winds to Cypress would probably level galveston and Bolivar to the foundations. I could be wrong, but I genuinely don't remember Ike being this bad, spanning such a vast area. I wonder what the damages side by side (adjusted for inflation) would be?


Ike caused A LOT more damage than the storm we experienced a few weeks ago. Blue tarps on a lot of roofs, fences down, trees down. And I lived in Northwest Houston during Ike.
I guess the areas I mostly hung around in back then just got lucky...West Houston/Memorial, Heights, Oak Forest/Timber Grove, Larchmont...I do not remember nearly this many downed trees and fences. Huge easement towers folded like crumpled coke cans etc.

But I will concede just as a good gesture...maybe you are right and my memory is just jacked. I certainly remember the devastation in Galveston and along the coast. I just don't remember Houston being this bad....at least not over such a large area. Possible that I was more "disconnected" back then as a result of youth/stupidity and not being a home owner with skin in the game.

Never in my life (lifelong Houstonian) do I remember seeing what I saw in recent weeks driving around Cypress, Oak Forest, Timber Grove, and a chunk of the Heights.
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FHKChE07
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12:47p, 6/7/24
AG
I was out of town for Ike and came back a week later and I remember it looking like a warzone when I went from the airport to my apartment in west houston. Ike was way worse in totality than this.

They are actively cleaning up. It is probably going to take another month to clean up all of the tree debris. I don't know what the plan is for the heavy trash. I went to Florida last year after that hurricane hit the panhandle and they had the same trucks there picking up loads of trees off 10 and taking them to the largest brush pile you have ever seen in a field. They aren't going to do the same with the heavy trash so it has to be a different group. That is going to take quite a while to cleanup.

As people have said in other threads, the electrical stuff was bodged just to get power back. They are now going back through and putting in permanent fixes and cleaning up things. That is going to take a while to.
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Irish 2.0
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12:51p, 6/7/24
I live at 14th and Allston and they started on my street today.
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TXAG 05
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1:43p, 6/7/24
AG
They've definitely been working on it. Those dump truck/trailer rigs have been all over the place. It's just going to take a while l, who knows how many trees and branches went down in that storm.
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P.H. Dexippus
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In reply to Foamcows • 1:48p, 6/7/24
AG
Foamcows said:
anyone know which person or team is responsible for the cleanup efforts and if they have any formal plan? (probably a bit of a stretch knowing our government, but worth asking.)
No idea, but the execution so far has been lackluster. In Timbergrove, the pattern has been for a single truck (black tandem truck-trailer with grapple) to show up with two guys, pick up but not chip a couple of houses worth, then drive off and not return for days to complete the rest of the street. Rumor has it they are being paid by the truck load, so I guess it make sense that they choose not to chip the debris and thereby reduce the number of trips required.

I have also read, though do not know if it is official policy, that you should put in a 311 request for debris cleanup. I did that a couple of days after the storm but no one has come to our address yet.
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agnerd
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2:25p, 6/7/24
AG
Not economical to chip at every house. They have massive chippers at the dump sites that are working on the trees. The closer you are to the dump sites, the more likely you are to get service. Some of the dump sites appear to be nearing capacity, so the limit may be on the speed of the chippers as opposed to the trucks picking up the trees.
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YellAg2004
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2:28p, 6/7/24
AG
In talking with someone that is fairly "in the know" with regards to city government, those debris trucks (black tandem w/ grapples) work on emergency contracts and are effectively storm chasers. The problem is, with this storm, the damage is stretched out over multiple states, so they're already spread thin. On top of that, I was told that they are paid by the ton, so if another city/state is paying a few bucks more, more of the trucks will obviously go there.

I don't know how much (if any) of that is true, but it makes sense at least logically. I have no clue if there's any method to their madness (i.e. certain crews assigned to certain streets/neighborhoods to work until clear), or if each contractor is largely told to just drive around and pick up what they find.

If people are leaving whole trees laying in their yard and expecting the city to do something about it, I have a feeling they're going to be waiting a looooong time.
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jc1402
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In reply to Mega Lops • 3:01p, 6/7/24
AG
How are these remotely comparable? "The rib" is internet meme slang and a derecho is the defined name of a type of storm by the National Weather Service and this storm was categorized as one...
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P.H. Dexippus
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In reply to agnerd • 4:55p, 6/7/24
AG
agnerd said:
Not economical to chip at every house. They have massive chippers at the dump sites that are working on the trees. The closer you are to the dump sites, the more likely you are to get service. Some of the dump sites appear to be nearing capacity, so the limit may be on the speed of the chippers as opposed to the trucks picking up the trees.
I would think that it would be more economic sense to run half as many trips (thereby cutting down on man hours and fuel) using onsite chippers at all houses. Save the large trunks for the large chipper at the collection site.
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Scientific
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5:44p, 6/7/24
AG
Seeing other parts around the world where they log a ton of trees for furniture or firewood, it's seems so wasteful to chip so many trees. I saw someone in my neighborhood picking up decent size logs of a sycamore. But theres so much still laying around.

If anyone has a scoop on some post oak somewhere.
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TheMasterplan
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6:19p, 6/7/24
Those tandem black trailers were all over Spring Branch and cleaned things up pretty quick.

There's a big dump site behind home depot at the intersection of I-10 and beltway on the west side.

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Ryan the Temp
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6:50p, 6/7/24
AG
All my tree waste was picked up within a week.
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atmtws
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10:22p, 6/7/24
AG
Our city is broke, so don't expect Amazon Prime delivery times for debris pickup. I'm in Lindale and we had trucks pass through a few nights ago. Tons left behind left behind because people are idiots and didn't separate trees limbs/logs from their fences and other debris. One pile for trees. One for everything else.

Also, have you reported your debris? If not, don't expect them to come knocking. I had our reported before our power went out.
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BillYeoman
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10:53p, 6/7/24
The City Government is t very good about cleaning up personal debris. They don't have the money.


I hope everyone cleans up their stuff and stop relying on the City of Houston to take care of your debris problems.
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P.H. Dexippus
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In reply to BillYeoman • 10:57p, 6/7/24
AG
BillYeoman said:
The City Government is t very good about cleaning up personal debris. They don't have the money.


I hope everyone cleans up their stuff and stop relying on the City of Houston to take care of your debris problems.

Heavy trash/tree waste pick up is part of regular city services. I can think of a dozen cuts that should happen before that goes away.
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AgLA06
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11:00p, 6/7/24
AG
I was told by a neighbor that you had to call 311to get scheduled for pickup.

I did and they asked me to separate tree vs junk into different piles. Took 12 days , but they picked up the tree debris. Still waiting on junk.

Seems you do have to call as the neighbors that called the day before me were picked up before the got mine.
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94chem
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11:49p, 6/7/24
Ike was a massive disaster all over. It was over a hundred miles wide, and put trees on houses all the way into central Texas. This derecho was embryonic compared to that.

After Harvey, I spent $3000 out of pocket to get my trees all cut and moved to the street on my yard. I had a pile 8 feet deep stretching 50 yards. Then after about 2 months, I started calling Dave Martin, and he got the trucks out to remove it. Then I spent about another $3000 to replace the yard.

Home ownership is expensive, and when stuff happens, you have to be prepared to shell out, AND for your government to do its part.
94chem,
That, sir, was the greatest post in the history of TexAgs. I salute you. -- Dough
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AlaskanAg99
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2:00a, 6/8/24
AG
Harris County has 4 million people. Roughly split between unincorporated and cities.

That is a massive amount of homes, it takes time and coordination for debris. Everyone should pray the next hurricane is a Harvey and not an Ike. An massive wind event (and this wasn't one) the disruption will result in weeks of power outages and months (6+) of debris clean up.

Be prepared to serve yourself if we take a direct hurricane wind event.
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P.H. Dexippus
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In reply to AlaskanAg99 • 11:38a, 6/8/24
AG
AlaskanAg99 said:
Everyone should pray the next hurricane is a Harvey and not an Ike.

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94chem
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In reply to AlaskanAg99 • 12:03p, 6/8/24
AlaskanAg99 said:
Everyone should pray the next hurricane is a Harvey and not an Ike.


I mean, if you're praying for terrible things to happen to your enemies, I suppose. Otherwise, that's an all-time idiotic statement. Harvey did 4 -5x the damage of Ike.
94chem,
That, sir, was the greatest post in the history of TexAgs. I salute you. -- Dough
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