Houston braces for long cleanup process

HOUSTON—Thousands of Southeast Texas residents are preparing to return to their flood-damaged homes to assess the damage and begin the long cleanup process. Harvey’s floodwaters continue to recede, exposing the destruction the tropical storm wrought when it dumped more than 50 inches of rain on the nation’s fourth-largest city. According to new numbers released late Wednesday by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, 43,452 homes in Harris County, which includes most of Houston but not the outlying suburbs, suffered damage. Throughout the rest of coastal Texas, state officials say 47,147 homes will need some level of repair. Commercial facilities also suffered extensive damage, although the area’s oil and gas infrastructure appears to have survived mostly unscathed. One small chemical plant in Crosby, about 25 miles northeast of Houston, reported explosions Thursday morning as trucks holding organic peroxide overheated. The Arkema chemical company has nine trucks at the Crosby site and warned several days ago they likely would explode after the plant lost refrigeration. Local officials evacuated a nearby neighborhood on Tuesday and plan to let the fires burn out. Company representatives expect all nine trucks to explode eventually. Harvey, now a tropical depression, continues to wreak havoc farther east of Houston, flooding Beaumont and surrounding communities. Search and rescue crews in boats are frantically trying to save people from their inundated houses. To compound the misery, the city of 120,000 near the Louisiana border lost its water supply early Thursday morning after floodwaters knocked out its main pumping station.

See “Harvey Relief” for information on organizations assisting victims affected by the storm.