Texas prepares for another cleanup

One initial estimate of damage caused by Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall in Texas early this week, indicates up to $32 million worth of repair and cleanup tasks await residents in the region.

AccuWeather staff members have calculated a preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Hurricane Beryl in the United States as ranging from $28 million to $32 million.

Hurricane Beryl, the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin (although it was a Category 1 storm by the time it reached Texas), also brought numerous tornadoes and flooding through eastern Texas, into Arkansas and southeastern Missouri.

According to ABC News, the Houston area received more than 1 foot of rainfall in a short period from Beryl. That region is finishing cleaning up after an earlier set of storms created approximately 1 million cubic yards of residential storm debris just in Houston, according to that city’s Solid Waste Management Department.

Neighboring Arkansas likewise still is cleaning up from earlier storms, with the northern half of that state having experienced more than a dozen tornadoes in late May.

Post-Beryl, ABC News features new photos of yet more downed trees and damaged property, with considerable property damage in Gulf Coast cities including Galveston and Surfside Beach, Texas.

Downed power lines are likely to offer another cleanup task, with ABC News indicating up to 1 million people served by just one utility may have been without power Monday.

The combination of fallen trees, washed out roads, damaged structures and downed power lines will present a combination of challenges on the public health and safety front and opportunities in terms of diverting metals, concrete and wood into existing recycling markets.

In Houston, ESPN reports damage to the roof of NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans. The stadium suffered similar roof panel damage in 2008 when Hurricane Ike moved through the Houston area.

According to stadium architectural and engineering firm Walter P Moore of Houston, the roof consists in part of translucent fabric “bi-parting panels” and a steel truss structural system.

“The 2,000-ton roof wants to ‘fly away’ under high winds, so a first-of-its-kind computerized clamping system was designed to hold it in its place," the company says.

While the Beryl damage is considerable, Accuweather says Hurricane Harvey, which impacted a similar area in Texas, caused $230 billion in total damage and economic loss in 2017 when the storm stalled over southeast Texas for days, producing record rainfall amounts that led to catastrophic flooding.