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Drivers urged to practice caution as work continues to restore signal lights around the Houston area post Beryl

Drivers are combating debris and traffic light outages across the city and surrounding areas in Beryl's wake.

HOUSTON — Drivers are combating debris and traffic light outages across the city and surrounding areas in Beryl's wake. As crews work to get it all fixed, drivers are urged to slow down and pay attention. 

The City of Houston 311 service map is covered in red dots indicating work that needs to be done. If you see a problem in your area, add it to the list.

At intersections around town, traffic has come to a crawl. Joshua Puyear has seen it from his bicycle seat.

"Some of the traffic is kind of looping around they don’t know what to do," he said.

His bicycle helps him manage it a bit more, but he's always on the lookout for unfocused drivers.

"They all just want to go. They don’t really care so I’ll ride next to a car that’s already going just kind of tail behind them so that they don’t hit the guy in front of me."

Beryl's path across Houston is still visible more than 24 hours later. Traffic signals are out, mud is being washed from highways and it'll likely be a while before it's restored and removed.

"The first step is to assess the damage for 12 to 24 hours after a big storm like Beryl has passed through. And they’re looking at things like debris on the highways lights that are out having to work with other entities," said KHOU 11 News's traffic expert Jennifer Reyna. 

Reyna has been covering Houston traffic for 15 years and said this cleanup job won't be quick.

"It's been such an undertaking. And will be for days to come. So, my experience and talking to experts at TxDOT, I know that they’ve got a six-county region," said Reyna.

She says with the major flooding across roads and highways, most people heeded the warnings. While others got caught off guard or chose to risk it, it's important to continue to heed the warnings and be careful and considerate.

"The frustration for Houstonians obviously hundreds of signal lights that are completely out and people have to stop take your time. And treat them like a four-way stop.

People like Puyear thank you for it.

"Share the road will be an obvious thing," he said.

Katiera Winfrey on social media: Facebook | X | Instagram

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