Fort Bend County sets up temporary landfills for flood clean up

FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas (FOX 26) - It looks bad enough, but the smell?  All that mold and those chemicals, it's not just gross but unhealthy says homeowner Greg Johnson.

"Being around construction particles, debris. Things that you don't want to continue to breath. It's a health hazard," he says.

That's why getting the stuff out of neighborhoods is a priority. Fort Bend County has 33 trucks collecting debris around the county. They've got their work cut out for them. Some neighborhoods here really took a beating from Harvey. County Judge Bob Hebert says they're doing their best to get a handle on removing hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of what used to be people's homes.

"We are at 103,000. We're removing 10-12 thousand yards a day. That's the good news. The bad news is we have 400,000 yards left to pick up," he said.

That could take another 30 to 40 days. He says they have no hard and fast neighborhood time table because some areas have more debris than others, making removal unpredictable.  So why these temporary landfills?  Simple. The trucks can get that debris out and go back more quickly than if they had to go to the permanent landfills. There will be time to bring it there later.

Not everyone is waiting. Some  like Greg Johnson have taken matters into their own hands and rented dumpsters.

"It cost us $500 but we were able to get all the debris removed within a few days," he said.