“While we don’t believe we’re in the middle of a disaster anymore, what we are in the middle of right now is cleanup,” City Manager Brenda Eivens said at the Feb. 9 City Council meeting.
A declaration of local disaster activates the proper recovery and rehabilitation aspects of local emergency management plans and grants aid and assistance, according to city documents.
Mayor Jim Penniman Morin initially issued a disaster declaration for the city of Cedar Park during the height of the storm on Feb. 1. The declaration cannot be continued for a period of more than seven days without the council’s approval.
“My concern is with residents, many of them haven’t cleaned their roofs off yet or gotten their vehicles in the position where they can check to see if there’s any damage,” Council Member Mel Kirkland said at the meeting. “So I’d prefer just to keep it in place for at least a couple of weeks, if not the month, just to make sure if people have to file a claim, they have the ability to do it under emergency orders.”
Cedar Park will be conducting a series of debris cleanup events and disposal opportunities for in-city residents over the next week.
In Leander, Mayor Christine DeLisle declared a state of local disaster Jan. 31. On Feb. 7, council approved to continue the extension for an additional 30 days.
“We estimate that just two weekends is not going to be enough with the volumes that are likely to come,” Leander City Manager Rick Beverlin said at the Feb. 7 City Council special meeting. “Because it wasn’t that distant of a memory, we just quite simply didn't have this much debris as we did in the 2021 storm.”
The city of Leander will also be conducting a series of brush and debris cleanup and disposal opportunities and events over the next week.
