Stacks and stacks of debris from Imelda are piled high at Ford Park. It's the temporary drop-off location for Jefferson County.
County Judge Jeff Branick said their contractors are picking-up an average of about 5,000 cubic yards a day. They started last Saturday. So far, crews have dropped off about 30,000 cubic yards of debris. That's the equivalent of roughly 2,000 dump truck loads.
Every year before hurricane season, Branick said they enter pre-disaster contracts with debris haulers and monitors. This year, Disaster Recovery Company is picking up the debris, while Tetra Tech Inc. is monitoring.
"It's required that we have a separate company that monitors the loads to make sure that they're getting the loads as full as they can, and that they're not getting charged for loads that are over-counted," Branick said.
Their crews are working in the unincorporated areas of the county, while TxDOT takes care of the state highways.
Branick believes TxDOT is planning to get started in mid-October. Anything within the city limits is being taken care of by Beaumont's own pre-disaster contractor.
Total, they believe they have about 200,000 cubic yards of debris in the unincorporated areas of the county. Once the debris gets to Ford Park, it's compacted and brought to a permanent waste disposal site at Republic Waste Services.
The county estimates it has roughly nine million dollars worth of expenses, due to Imelda. The cost for debris pick-up alone is staggering.
"It is a huge cost, even being reimbursed at 100 percent during Harvey, our emergency fund still had to spend 5 million dollars, so another wallop like that would be pretty hard to take," Branick said.
The county could be reimbursed for 75-90% of the expense for debris pick up, if the presidential disaster declaration for public assistance comes through. Branick said they're cautiously optimistic that it will, based on the amount of damage Texas sustained.
