FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — In Beryl’s wake, Fort Bend County leaders provided an update Monday evening on storm damage and recovery efforts.
In just one example of the storm’s power, County Judge KP George said an apartment complex in Rosenberg partially collapsed due to the storm, displacing nearly 40 residents who were relocated to a shelter at the city’s fairgrounds.
Drainage District Director Mark Vogler characterized Beryl as a significant rainfall event. While most of the county’s streams and creeks were already receding, according to Vogler, he said Barker Reservoir and the Brazos River near Richmond had still not peaked.
The county also experienced as many as 250,000 power outages according to Judge George. That number was already going down as of Monday evening. County officials confirmed that CenterPoint had staged more than 650 personnel at Rosenberg’s fairgrounds to help with power restoration efforts.
In a Facebook post Monday night, George explained that county offices would be closed Tuesday due to lingering power outages.
Fort Bend County debris collection
During Monday’s update, George stressed that debris removal would be a “major problem” for the county in the coming days.
“We’ve moved to recovery mode,” he said. “I want to remind you, that we have a lot of work to do, and we are diligently engaging in those activities.”
Throughout the day, county road crews worked to remove debris from roadways according to Road and Bridge Commissioner Scott Wieghat. He confirmed the county brought on a debris removal contractor to help with collection efforts, which could start soon.
“We’ll be able to start hopefully start picking up and removing debris as early as this week, if not first part of next week, for sure,” he said.
Wieghat also warned against placing debris in black trash bags where it could be mistaken for garbage.
“Do not bag your debris, we won’t know if that’s household trash or what it is, so we leave it, thinking it’s household trash,” he said.