Gerald Hanks
A contracting company with agreements in place with both the City of Houston and Harris County is bringing in out-of-state subcontractors to complete the cleanup efforts from Hurricane Harvey.
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Reports are surfacing regarding Galveston-based Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) Emergency Services’ subcontract with an Alabama-based contractor for the removal of thousands of cubic yards of debris left over from the storm.
The call for out-of-state contractors is growing for several reasons, one of which being the sheer volume of debris still left in Houston and its surrounding areas.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner estimates the storm left up to eight million cubic yards of debris on the city’s streets, with the leader calling for the debris to be removed by Thanksgiving.
FEMA estimates the cleanup job may take up to six months.
RELATED: Slow Debris Removal in Houston Causes Turmoil Between Mayor, Council
Another factor driving up the demand for more crews in Houston is the need for cleanup workers in Florida after Hurricane Irma.
After Irma left a devastating wake across Florida’s Gulf Coast, cities across the region were reportedly willing to pay more for cleanup workers than the going rate in Houston; in an effort to keep workers in Houston, FEMA agreed to raise its reimbursement rate to the city from $7.69 to $11.69 per cubic yard.
A third reason is Houston’s sprawling geography across the area.
Ben Bankston, a regional manager with DRC, compared the cleanup effort after Harvey with the work the company did last summer after a devastating flood in Baton Rouge:
“In Baton Rouge, there was a line on one side of the road on one major highway where you knew pretty much where all the debris was going to be,” Bankston said in an interview with a local newspaper. “In [Texas], it could be all the way in Tomball, it could be all the way in Huffman and also in Baytown.”
RELATED: Vice News Follows Texas Trash Crew Into Houston Post-Harvey
In another interview, DRC’s president John Sullivan said, even with the increase in the hauling rate, the company’s profit margins would still shrink to “almost nothing.”
“It’s not a renegotiation, it’s a necessity,” Sullivan said to Reuters. “The increase that we’re getting is all going to (pay) costs.”
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