The final cleanup needed to remove debris caused by Hurricane Harvey in Aransas County is now underway more than 14 months after the massive storm hit the Coastal Bend.
“It needs to be done for the health and safety of our residents,” Deanna Spruce from Aransas County Long-Term Recovery said.
Workers on a barge with a crane are slowly moving through canals in two neighborhoods and parts of Salt Lake scooping out debris that Harvey’s storm surge and wind put there. And there’s a wide variety of it.
“We’re pulling up all sorts of stuff – cars, roofs, boats, hazardous materials that affect the waterways,” Spruce said.
People who live in the affected neighborhood are happy to see the unsightly and potentially dangerous debris disappear.
“It’s really nice,” Copano Cove subdivision resident Christopher Horn said. “The county is really stepping up and doing this for the residents.”
Spruce estimates that the cleanup, which started Monday, will take several weeks and cost up to $5 million. She says the cost is worth it to get the drawn out task of removing all of Harvey’s debris over with as the rebuilding continues.
“We’ve achieved a lot, but we have a ways to go,” she said.
