The gist
On July 10, Pearland City Council met in an emergency meeting with city staff to praise their’s efforts to support recovery and keep operations running, as well as discuss continued recovery efforts following Hurricane Beryl, which hit Pearland and the Greater Houston area on July 8.
“[Watching] first hand at the emergency operations center, beginning Sunday afternoon ... and through the event, ... we had an incredible, dedicated staff,” Mayor Kevin Cole said.
Pearland weather stations recorded winds higher than 70 miles per hour and measured over 12 inches of rain during the storm in some areas, creating damage not seen since Hurricane Ike in 2008, Assistant Chief of Police Chad Randall said.
City Council voted unanimously to waive building permit fees for repairing homes and businesses damaged by Hurricane Beryl.
While the damage to structures was minimal, the city did experience widespread power outages and debris, Randall said.
A closer look
Mayor Kevin Cole said he spoke with CenterPoint Energy on July 10 and was told that before the storm, the energy company had been tracking the storm nine days prior and began calling in workers from other areas.
“On Friday, that storm was still projected to go in south of Corpus Christi, which is not an area that CenterPoint [Energy] is in charge of, not an area that they are handling, and then in those two days, it started moving, ... so this thing made a right turn at the last second.”
CenterPoint Energy secured nearly 12,000 frontline workers from as far away as California, Ohio and West Virginia to support restoration efforts, according to a CenterPoint Energy social media post.
“I was told today that 75% of the area has been assessed,” Cole said. "They expect all the assessments to be completed by [July 11].”
What you need to know
Like many other communities in the area, Pearland has experienced widespread traffic light outages, which are caused by power outages and the need to repair many lights, City Manager Trent Epperson said.
“It’s causing a lot of headaches in traffic right now,” Epperson said.
The power outages come at a time when the region is facing severe heat, and on July 11, the National Weather Service issued a severe heat advisory for southeast Texas.
Community Impact previously reported Pearland and other communities in the Houston area have set up cooling centers for people to recover and recharge their devices.
What else?
On July 9, the city activated its debris removal contract, which will be deployed sometime next week, Communications Director Josh Lee said.
Epperson stressed that for the debris removal to run smoothly, debris should be separated into separate piles and placed near the curb, away from machinery such as fire hydrants, which can be damaged during pickup. Debris should be separated into the following categories:
- Normal household trash
- Vegetative
- Construction and demolition
- Appliances and white goods
- Electronics
- Household hazardous waste
Quote of note
“We came out of this well," Cole said. “Yeah, we have some tree damage, but as a community, we came out very well; ... nothing compared to Ike, and it’s a reminder that we have a long storm season ahead of us. It’s a big reminder that we need to be self-sufficient and be able to stand and be off the grid for three or four or five days.”
