Storm season

Storm and Flood Debris in Katy: What to Do First

West Houston knows water. Here is the practical sequence after a storm, and the one sizing mistake that costs people money on every flood job.

First: safety, then documentation

Safety. Treat every downed line as live. Do not touch limbs resting on power lines. Watch for damaged structures, nails in debris, snakes and fire ants displaced by water, and standing water that may be contaminated. In a Gulf Coast summer, working outside all day without power is a genuine heat risk — start early, take shade breaks and drink more than you think you need. Generators go outside, well away from windows, always.

Documentation. Photograph everything before you move it. Every damaged structure, every water line on the wall, every ruined item. Multiple angles, something for scale. Adjusters are overwhelmed after a major event and may not reach you for weeks; your photographs are the record.

Do not dispose of damaged property before your adjuster has seen it or given permission, unless it is a health hazard. Wet carpet, drywall and insulation are the exception — those have to come out fast.

Flood debris is heavier than you think

This is the single most common sizing mistake on flood work, and it costs people real money.

A whole-house muck-out that would be a comfortable 30 yard if the material were dry is often a 20 yard when it is wet — and even then we will tell you to watch the fill line. If your job is flood-related, say so when you book. We size for weight rather than volume and we say so up front.

The muck-out sequence

The standard order after water gets into a house, and it needs to start fast because mould takes hold within a day or two in this climate:

1. Photograph everything before anything moves.
2. Cut the drywall above the water line — typically a foot or two above the highest mark, and to the nearest stud.
3. Pull the insulation out of the exposed cavities. It holds water and it will not dry in place.
4. Lift the flooring — carpet, pad, laminate and engineered wood all have to go. Tile sometimes survives; the substrate underneath often does not.
5. Remove lower cabinetry and anything else that wicked water.
6. Get air moving and keep it moving.

Wear a respirator, not a dust mask, and gloves. Flood water is not clean water.

What the city will and will not collect

After a declared event, collection arrangements are usually announced separately and they change from event to event, so check what is running for your area rather than assuming.

In normal operation, City of Katy curbside includes up to three bulky heavy-trash items a week and weekly yard debris within set limits, with a quarterly Super Heavy Trash pickup up to six cubic yards. What it never includes is construction debris — and a muck-out is construction debris. Drywall, insulation, flooring and cabinetry coming out of a flooded house are not a curbside service in normal times.

The full curbside limits are here.

When you need your own container

• You are doing a muck-out or repair work rather than setting bulky items at the curb
• Your volume exceeds the curbside allowance, which for a flooded house it certainly will
• You hired a contractor, so the debris is theirs to remove
• You are a business, a landlord or a property manager
• You cannot wait for a collection schedule
• The property is outside the city limits and on no city route at all

Separating debris the right way

If a storm took out trees as well as getting water into the house, that is genuinely two streams. Clean vegetation has a cheaper route than mixed debris; building material out of a muck-out is construction debris. Mixing them means the whole load is priced as the more expensive stream.

Brush is also deceptive on volume — it does not stack, and limbs trap enormous amounts of air. Cut to four-foot lengths as you load and you will nearly double what fits.

Why capacity disappears after a storm

Every hauler has a finite number of containers and trucks. After a major event, demand across the whole region multiplies overnight while the receiving facilities are dealing with volume of their own. Containers that normally turn around in three days take a week.

In the weeks after a significant storm, lead times stretch for everybody, and any hauler promising same-day delivery in that window is probably not being straight with you.

What we do is be honest about it. If we can get you a container on Thursday we will say Thursday, not "probably tomorrow". And we prioritise customers with genuine habitability problems — water in the house — over routine work. That occasionally makes someone unhappy, and we still think it is the right call.

Preparing before the season

• Trim trees before June, particularly anything overhanging the roof. Doing it outside the season means the vegetation goes out at normal rates rather than in the scramble afterwards.
• Clear the yard of loose items that become projectiles.
• Photograph your property, inside and out, before the season.
• Check your policy. Specifically whether you carry flood cover, which is separate from homeowners insurance, and what debris removal allowance you have. Many policies include a debris removal allowance that people never claim because they do not know it is there.
• Know your flood risk. Parts of west Houston sit in or near the Addicks and Barker reservoir pools, and risk is not always obvious from a street address.

If you are clearing preventatively, that is exactly the kind of job we would rather do in a quiet month than in the week after a storm.