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Tuesday
March 16, 2010 Since 1922 |
Far-flung cleanup crews get busy
By Kari Griffin
Baytown Sun Published September 19, 2008 Contractors from across the United States drove all night to get to Baytown after Hurricane Ike hit. And once they arrived, they went straight to work clearing local streets and cleaning up the mess left behind.
“As soon as the storm quit blowing, we were in town. And we’ve been here ever since,” Bamaco, Inc. President Robert “Mike” Mitchell said.
Bamaco, Inc., (a Florida-based company owned by Mitchell and his wife Beverly), is one of the two disaster recovery services hired by the City of Baytown to clean up tree limbs and other debris covering yards and streets all over town.
The second company hired to help with this task was DRC, a disaster management group based out of Mobile, Ala.
DRC project manager Mike Thompson agreed that the pick-up is going well.
Phase One of the cleanup, the “push process” which includes cleaning up all of the streets and roadways so drivers can pass through has been completed.
“It took us about three days to accomplish that,” Thompson said.
Workers from both contractors began picking up debris from the piles left on curbs Wednesday.
Thompson and Mitchell estimated that their crews cleaned up about 10,000 cubic yards of debris on their sides of town Wednesday.
Hurricane Ike left more than 1 million cubic yards of debris across Baytown, they said.
The contractors expect to clear between 60,000 and 80,000 cubic yards a day.
Bamaco, Inc. and DRC were hired to sweep the city three times.
The first clean-up is expected to take about 10 days. Then workers will cover the same grounds twice more before leaving.
“As far as getting every bit picked up, it could take a month,” Thompson said.
But Baytonians can rest assured that workers are trying to get the city clean as soon as possible.
“As soon as crews arrive, we’re getting them out,” Thompson said.
Bamaco Inc. field supervisor Pete Gonzalez said the San Jacinto Mall parking lot is full of trucks and workers every night, and empty again by about 6:30 a.m. when the contractors begin the 12-hour shift they’ll be working seven days a week until the job is done.
“We’ve got over 100 trucks and crews in here,” Bamaco, Inc. assistant vice president Jeffery Mitchell said.
By the end of the week, Mitchell expects to have twice that number.
At the edge of the San Jacinto Mall parking lot are piles of limbs that Gonzales said are ground into mulch soon after they arrive.
Gary Brooks, project manager for Beck Disaster Recovery, Inc., (the monitoring firm hired by the city to make sure the cleanup is going by the law), spent his 43rd birthday helping the state of Baytown get back to what it once was.
Brooks has worked more than six hurricane relief efforts and said things in Baytown were running smoothly.
“We’re bringing in more trucks by the hour,” Brooks said.
The city has been divided by the nine police district, then cut in half – with each of the two contractors, (Bamaco and DRC), working one side.
“The City of Baytown’s Public Works department is also out picking up debris,” Brooks said.
He advised Baytonians who haven’t had their debris cleared yet to be patient.
“They will get to you,” Brooks said.
Brooks, who worked to help oversee the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina, said each disaster and the destruction left behind in every town is unique.
In Baytown, crews are seeing more fallen limbs, trees and fences than pieces left behind by flooded homes.
Residents can help speed up the clean-up process by separating their debris into different piles: one for trees and vegetation, one for clothing, and similar items, one for construction materials such as sheet rock and carpet, and one for appliances.
The debris should be brought to the edge of the street for collection. Residents are asked not to drop off materials at the debris sites.
Brooks said San Jacinto Mall is the only site taking Construction and Demolition (C&D) materials.
“All of the other sites are vegetation only,” Brooks said.
The San Jacinto Mall is one of five debris sites in Baytown, along with one on Ferry Road, one near the Baytown Marina on Highway 146, one on North Alexander Drive and one on Bayway Drive.
Robert Mitchell said the city is also looking into adding a sixth site.
“The more dump sites we have, the sooner we’ll get the debris off the street,” Mitchell said.
And the city’s cooperation is helping the process greatly, the Bamaco, Inc. president added.
City officials and staff are doing all they can to get Baytown back to some form of normalcy, he said.
After more than three decades on this job and hundreds of disaster clean-ups, Mitchell has worked a lot of places, he said.
“But I’ve never been a place where the city was so helpful,” Mitchell said.
Baytown Sun Published September 19, 2008 Contractors from across the United States drove all night to get to Baytown after Hurricane Ike hit. And once they arrived, they went straight to work clearing local streets and cleaning up the mess left behind.
“As soon as the storm quit blowing, we were in town. And we’ve been here ever since,” Bamaco, Inc. President Robert “Mike” Mitchell said.
Bamaco, Inc., (a Florida-based company owned by Mitchell and his wife Beverly), is one of the two disaster recovery services hired by the City of Baytown to clean up tree limbs and other debris covering yards and streets all over town.
The second company hired to help with this task was DRC, a disaster management group based out of Mobile, Ala.
DRC project manager Mike Thompson agreed that the pick-up is going well.
Phase One of the cleanup, the “push process” which includes cleaning up all of the streets and roadways so drivers can pass through has been completed.
“It took us about three days to accomplish that,” Thompson said.
Workers from both contractors began picking up debris from the piles left on curbs Wednesday.
Thompson and Mitchell estimated that their crews cleaned up about 10,000 cubic yards of debris on their sides of town Wednesday.
Hurricane Ike left more than 1 million cubic yards of debris across Baytown, they said.
The contractors expect to clear between 60,000 and 80,000 cubic yards a day.
Bamaco, Inc. and DRC were hired to sweep the city three times.
The first clean-up is expected to take about 10 days. Then workers will cover the same grounds twice more before leaving.
“As far as getting every bit picked up, it could take a month,” Thompson said.
But Baytonians can rest assured that workers are trying to get the city clean as soon as possible.
“As soon as crews arrive, we’re getting them out,” Thompson said.
Bamaco Inc. field supervisor Pete Gonzalez said the San Jacinto Mall parking lot is full of trucks and workers every night, and empty again by about 6:30 a.m. when the contractors begin the 12-hour shift they’ll be working seven days a week until the job is done.
“We’ve got over 100 trucks and crews in here,” Bamaco, Inc. assistant vice president Jeffery Mitchell said.
By the end of the week, Mitchell expects to have twice that number.
At the edge of the San Jacinto Mall parking lot are piles of limbs that Gonzales said are ground into mulch soon after they arrive.
Gary Brooks, project manager for Beck Disaster Recovery, Inc., (the monitoring firm hired by the city to make sure the cleanup is going by the law), spent his 43rd birthday helping the state of Baytown get back to what it once was.
Brooks has worked more than six hurricane relief efforts and said things in Baytown were running smoothly.
“We’re bringing in more trucks by the hour,” Brooks said.
The city has been divided by the nine police district, then cut in half – with each of the two contractors, (Bamaco and DRC), working one side.
“The City of Baytown’s Public Works department is also out picking up debris,” Brooks said.
He advised Baytonians who haven’t had their debris cleared yet to be patient.
“They will get to you,” Brooks said.
Brooks, who worked to help oversee the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina, said each disaster and the destruction left behind in every town is unique.
In Baytown, crews are seeing more fallen limbs, trees and fences than pieces left behind by flooded homes.
Residents can help speed up the clean-up process by separating their debris into different piles: one for trees and vegetation, one for clothing, and similar items, one for construction materials such as sheet rock and carpet, and one for appliances.
The debris should be brought to the edge of the street for collection. Residents are asked not to drop off materials at the debris sites.
Brooks said San Jacinto Mall is the only site taking Construction and Demolition (C&D) materials.
“All of the other sites are vegetation only,” Brooks said.
The San Jacinto Mall is one of five debris sites in Baytown, along with one on Ferry Road, one near the Baytown Marina on Highway 146, one on North Alexander Drive and one on Bayway Drive.
Robert Mitchell said the city is also looking into adding a sixth site.
“The more dump sites we have, the sooner we’ll get the debris off the street,” Mitchell said.
And the city’s cooperation is helping the process greatly, the Bamaco, Inc. president added.
City officials and staff are doing all they can to get Baytown back to some form of normalcy, he said.
After more than three decades on this job and hundreds of disaster clean-ups, Mitchell has worked a lot of places, he said.
“But I’ve never been a place where the city was so helpful,” Mitchell said.