CLEANING UP AFTER ALLISON

摘要

During the period of June 5 through June 9, 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dropped over thirty inches of nun on the greater Houston metropolitan area and caused what has now become known as the "Great Flood of 2001". The storm suddenly developed just off shore in the Gulf of Mexico and caught the entire upper gulf coast by surprise. Allison did not at first have all of the signs indicative of the classic cyclonic storm phenomena But when it suddenly developed into a tropical storm, it came ashore quickly and became a devastating storm with massive amounts of rain hi a very short time. Flooding of neighborhoods, blocked main thoroughfares, power outages and stranded citizens coalesced into a major emergency which culminated with a presidential disaster area declaration. Tropical Storm Allison organized quickly before coming ashore on June 5. The storm drenched Galveston and the south Houston area with 7 to 10 inches of ram as it moved northward out of the metropolitan area. Then, on June 8, almost inexplicably, Allison reversed her course and deluged Houston again with another 20 to 28 niches in a 24 hour period. Some parts of the city had 38 niches of rain in the five-day period. The "Great Flood of 2001" turned out to become the most destructive tropical storm in history. In her wake, Allison left 50,000 homes flooded, severely damaged the Texas Medical Center and the Houston downtown business district, forced the cancellation of over 1,000 commercial airline flights, disrupted power and telephone service to over 100,000 residences, damaged 70,000 vehicles, caused $5 billion in damages ($2 billion to the medical center alone) and took the lives of twenty-two citizens. The city was at a virtual standstill. The first order of business was to deal with the emergency itself. In accordance with the City of Houston's Emergency Management Plan, all City of Houston, Harris County, State of Texas and local federal agencies combined to conduct rescue and recovery operations. Almost concurrent with this was the execution of the initial steps to clean up the city and plan debris removal operations. Within the confines of the City of Houston, debris removal operations fell primarily under the direction and jurisdiction of the City of Houston's Department of Solid Waste Management. Consistent with the provisions of the Emergency Management Plan, the Director of Solid Waste Management becomes the city debris manager.