Texans spend Labor Day sifting through soggy ruins from storm
HOUSTON — Some Gulf Coast residents ripped up soggy carpeting, cut out sheet rock from walls marked by the height of floodwaters and sorted through ruined clothes and other belongings Monday, 10 days after Harvey swept onto land and caused billions of dollars in damage.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner insisted that America’s fourth-largest city is “open for business,” but with areas under water, people not yet in their homes and city services not yet fully restored, the disasters created by Harvey are by no means resolved.
Turner said much of the city was hoping to get back on track after Labor Day, a traditional day to honor workers that took on new meaning in Texas, where people were cleaning out their homes.
“Anyone who was planning on a conference or a convention or a sporting event or a concert coming to this city, you can still come,” he told CBS. “We can do multiple things at the same time.”
One worry, of further explosions at a damaged chemical plant, eased after officials carried out a controlled burn Sunday of unstable compounds at the Arkema plant in Crosby. Three trailers had previously caught fire after Harvey’s floodwaters knocked out generators.
Authorities said Monday it is now safe for residents of a 1.5-mile evacuation zone around the Arkema plant to return. They were forced to leave last Tuesday.
Floodwaters also inundated at least five toxic waste Superfund sites near Houston and some may be damaged, though Environmental Protection Agency officials have yet to assess the extent of what occurred.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told CNN the EPA is “working on some of them already,” but “they have restraints on their ability to check out some of them just simply because of the water.”
Other issues across the region: too much water still in houses, but no water to drink.
Utility crews went doorto-door Sunday shutting off power and warning those in some waterlogged homes in western parts of the city that more flooding was possible — not from rain, but from releases of water from overtaxed reservoirs.
Harvey slammed into Texas on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, but brought the worst flooding to Houston and other areas as a tropical storm. The storm is blamed for at least 60 deaths.
In other storm-ravaged neighborhoods, people worried about thefts.
Police in the southwest Bellaire neighborhood received reports of scavengers picking through water-damaged possessions and urged those cleaning up to keep anything left outside to dry closer to their homes.
In the suburb of Dickinson, one homeowner used orange spray paint on a sheet of dirty plywood to warn: “Looters Will B Shot.”
Meanwhile, repairs continued on the water treatment plant in Beaumont, 90 miles from downtown Houston, which failed after the swollen Neches River inundated the main intake system and backup pumps halted.
Elsewhere, Hurricane Irma strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it approached the northeast Caribbean. It is expected to hit the region Tuesday.