COMFORT, Texas – Kendall County has completed its first 48 hours of cleanup after the Hill Country floods, but officials say the work has only begun.
Monday marks one month since the deadly floods. KSAT learned earlier this week that the search and recovery efforts in Kendall County have been completed. Now, crews there are focused on cleanup.
KSAT was invited to see the behind-the-scenes of the process.
Brady Constantine, Kendall County emergency management coordinator and fire marshal, said the cleanup process is happening in two phases: clearing the right-of-ways and cleaning the waterways.
“It’s moving a lot quicker than we anticipated,” Constantine said. “We haven’t had any hiccups.”
On Tuesday, Kendall County officials, including Constantine, held a news conference to roll out this debris management plan. Here’s a quick recap:
- It started Wednesday of this week and is expected to take eight to 10 weeks in total
- Contracted crews will work seven days a week
- Crews are working from west to east in the county
- Cleanup will focus on the right-of-ways and the riverbed
Residents with debris on their property can call the county’s call center at 830-217-2890 for assistance.
Kendall County officials ask private residents to pile debris safely so that they can move along county right-of-ways and to sort it into categories: electronics, appliances, hazardous waste, vegetative debris, and construction materials.
“It helps speed the process up,” Constantine said. “This company is going to chip and mulch all of the debris. The last thing we want is for it to be full of trash.”
Crews will pick up debris left on right-of-ways and take it to a state-approved storage area near Comfort.
Constantine said crews in Kendall County are still waiting for the green light from the river authority and for the state to finalize right-of-entry forms that will let them start cleanup along the river and properties around it.
As of Friday, only one bridge was still closed in Kendall County on High Street.
“We continued to keep it closed just so that the cleanup crews could work effectively and not have to worry about where they were going to park,” Constantine said.
Constantine said he’s hopeful it will reopen in the coming days. The county does not have a timeline for when the burn ban will be lifted.
“I have to be tactful on how we do this,” he said. “We have a predominantly volunteer fire service across the county ... If we lift the burn ban right now, we’re gonna have 200-plus fires across the county. It’s gonna tax our emergency services, and they won’t be available for the true emergencies that they’re needed for. I don’t want that to happen.”
For a rural county, decisions are being made here daily. Constantine said the best way for residents to get help is to use the call center.
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