1.1 million+ cubic yards of debris have been collected since July 4 floods, Kerrville officials say

KERRVILLE, Texas – The City of Kerrville announced that more than 1.1 million cubic yards of debris have been collected since the Hill Country floods.

The City of Kerrville’s Economic Improvement Corporation met on Monday to discuss the city’s continued response to the floods on the Fourth of July.

Kerrville Assistant City Manager Michael Hornes told the agency that 1,175,000 cubic yards of vegetative and construction debris have been removed.

Hornes added that crews collect approximately 30,000 to 40,000 cubic yards daily.

More than 300 trucks operate daily to remove the debris from the flood-affected areas.

Arborists and debris contractors are working to preserve thousands of trees along the Guadalupe River within city limits, despite widespread damage from flooding.

Hornes said the city is insisting on saving the trees to prevent the area from looking like “scraped earth.”

“The debris contractors, when they looked at some of those trees, they said, ‘Are you sure you want these to stay?’ And we were like, ’100%.’ The arborists say ‘yes,’ and we say ‘yes,’” Hornes told the agency.

The deadline to submit Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster loan applications is Sept. 28.

However, during the Economic Improvement Corporation meeting, officials said they plan to request additional extensions to ensure more businesses and individuals have the opportunity to apply for recovery funding.

Officials also said a local business has offered to help fund hiring a public relations firm and a public information officer to communicate the long-term recovery group’s goals and support the launch of official long-term recovery efforts.

In addition to discussions about Kerrville’s recovery effort status and its continued response to the floods, the Economic Improvement Corporation also addressed several projects, as well as a financial report for August.

According to a meeting agenda, the projects revolved around the following topics:

• Downtown-area streetscape
• Olympic Pool renovations
• Travis Street pump upsizing
• Granger McDonald Park
• Megaacrete
• James Avery traffic signal

The Economic Improvement Corporation includes seven members who promote and develop industrial and manufacturing enterprises to encourage employment and public welfare, including financing the acquisition, construction, equipping, maintenance and operating costs of any project.

More Kerrville-related coverage on KSAT:

• 2 weeks remain to apply for federal assistance following July flooding, FEMA says
• Kerrville City Council approved new budget, property tax rate still to be decided
• Kerrville to offer third health insurance option following employee concerns, KSAT reporting