By Brett Rosenberg
November 9, 2009

In a MWMA panel discussion on disaster management, Houston Solid Waste Director Harry Hayes and Mark Stafford of DRC Emergency Services, LLC shared their insights following their experiences from Hurricane Ike, the largest natural disaster to strike the Houston Gulf Coast and third costliest storm to strike the U.S. since 1970, with over $38 billion in damages.

Both before and after the storm hit, Hayes said it was crucial for the city to develop positive working relationships with FEMA, other cities in the region and debris removal companies. “If we had not had the partnerships in place before Ike, we would’ve had some real issues,” he said. As it stood, Houston faced a debris field of nearly six billion cubic yards and two million people without power.

In addition to various partnerships, the city had pre-positioned contracts to handle a storm of Ike’s size and intensity, although the original RFP was for a Category 3 storm with 5.0 million cubic yards of debris. Through DRC, Houston set up 12 Debris Management Centers in strategic locations around the city.

While information was not always readily available, Hayes cited several successes:

• Removed 75 percent of debris in 36 days.

• 265, 000 chipped tons recycled.

• 0 accidents and injuries during collection phase.

• Recycled debris equals more than 25,000 autos taken off the road for a year.

• Estimated Ike costs for Houston exceed $125 million. FEMA reimbursed a sizable portion of this expense.

• Ike survey found 87 percent citizens approved of collection program.

• In all, DRC contracted to bring 2,500 vehicles to Houston to aid in debris removal.

Stafford followed up on Hayes’ comments, stating that, “The whole time, public officials were in the spotlight. The mayor could have been in a position where he had to defend his actions but he didn’t have to.”