DALLAS — Two weeks after a May storm that ravaged homes, trees and electrical grids, some North Texas cities are asking their residents for patience as they estimate that debris cleanup from the powerful winds might last well into the month of July.
"It's pretty wild to see," Brandon Morgan said of the two massive piles of debris in front of his North Dallas home.
A neighbor's 30-foot oak tree toppled into Morgan's front yard that stormy morning last month. Torn rain gutters and a damaged air conditioning compressor were the only significant damage to his home. But after hiring someone to cut the tree trunk and branches into manageable sizes and push them to the curb, as of Tuesday, the piles were still there.
"We have debris everywhere. We have a big city," said Clifton Gillespie, the director of sanitation for the city of Dallas.
Previous storms, like those in 2019, also created a large amount of storm debris. But the areas of damage were more defined. The May 28 storm ravaged much of Dallas County.
"We're using all of our bulky item and collection crews and then we've essentially doubled that," Gillespie said of the cleanup effort still underway with an estimated 160 employees dedicated to storm cleanup.
The City of Dallas Sanitation Department website allows residents to see where those cleanup crews are now and which areas they expect to reach next. City crews are transferring the storm debris to a temporary collection site in Upper Greenville where it will eventually be processed.
"Our estimate right now is that it's going to take 60 days to get a first pass through the city," Gillespie said. "We ask people to be patient with us."
"Wow," Morgan said responding to that estimate. "I was anticipating more like two or three weeks. But hey, there's a lot of damage, a lot of folks out there that need stuff cleaned up. So, I get it," he said.
The cities of Plano and Richardson and Garland are reporting much the same. Two weeks after the storm, each city tells WFAA that, although they are hundreds of truckloads into the effort, they have completed about 25% of the expected cleanup. As of Tuesday evening, the city of Richardson reporting 31% of the storm debris has been picked up.
Plano told WFAA it could take until July to get it all done as they they are sweep the city from east to west, twice. Garland says its crews are working six days a week on large pile collections.
Work crews ask that residents have the storm debris cut into manageable sizes and placed at the curb, do not mix it with regular household trash, and keep vehicles at least 20 feet away so that work crews can access the piles.
And, like Brandon Morgan, keep being patient.
"I'll probably wait it out I guess and let the city come pick it up as they can," he said.