Debris Removal Tracking System Promised for Houston Storm Victims May Never Launch: Here’s Why

HOUSTON – If you’re still dealing with debris from the Derecho storm or the heavy rain the Houston area has seen in recent weeks and thought you could keep up with the city’s cleanup progress, you may have to wait some more A little. .

Shortly after the May 16 storm, the City of Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD) announced it would release a new tool designed to help residents track the progress of cleaning up storm debris .

Tracking storm debris collection progress was intended to allow Houstonians to monitor daily debris collection efforts following the devastating derecho.

On June 3, the Department of Solid Waste Management said it had to delay the release to ensure it provided accurate and up-to-date information.

Now, more than a week later, the department announced it has hired five new contractors and 100 new trucks to clean up debris from the storm.

Due to the number of crews, the department said maintaining the tracker in real time has proven difficult and several stakeholders are working to verify the data uploaded to the map so they can provide accurate and timely information. day.

“Our storm debris tracker is directionally accurate, but we work with far too many data points to produce something informative and accurate. We constantly monitor debris collection and have twice-daily conversations about contractor performance and flexibility,” the department said in a statement to KPRC 2 News.

While there is no firm date on when the storm tracking system will be released or if it is still in the plans, the department says that so far the city has collected enough debris to “fill 1/3 of the NRG stadium and are around 75,000 people. % completed with the first pass.