HOUSTON — It's been a nonstop month for the Houston Emergency Operations Center with all hands on deck.
Multiple rounds of severe weather this month has the center on high alert and much busier than normal.
"We started April 26, with the storm in the Kingwood area. Then we went to the derecho," said Thomas Munos, the acting director of the Houston's Office of Emergency Management.
The powerful wind storm that swept across Harris County left behind lots of damage and thousands of families without power. Munoz said the derecho was something the area hadn't seen in a long time.
"In 1986, you know, we found out that one occurred in Lake Livingston," he said. "Like I said, these are an anomaly. And it just came in so fast."
Now the city is trying to figure out the total cost of these storms.
"Capturing everything that was spent, everything that was utilized for the storm and all the damages after," Munoz said. "So there is a process."
As that process is underway, debris pickup is a major priority.
"We're looking at approximately 400,000 cubic yards with an estimation of 1.5 million cubic yards of debris," Munoz said. "That's all that we're working on, so it's been nonstop operations for a solid waste department."
But as more severe weather hit the Houston area earlier this week, cleanup efforts became a bigger challenge.
"They do a sweep and then all of a sudden there's now debris as a result of that," Munoz said.
And if you feel like the Houston area has been especially hit hard by back-to-back storms, you're not alone.
"I've been doing this for a long time now," Munoz said. "This is the first season that we've ever started off like this that I can recall. It is concerning."