Debris from this week's severe storms in Dallas could take multiple months to collect, Dallas Office of Emergency Management officials said during a press briefing Wednesday.
The city had about 1,600 service requests related to storm debris and blocked roads, according to Travis Houston, the city's emergency management director. An incident management team specifically dedicated to debris response was established and, as of Wednesday afternoon, 433 requests have been closed.
"There are large volumes of storm debris citywide," Houston said. "Sanitation is rapidly scaling up, but it may take multiple months to collect all debris, and return to a normal brush and bulky pickup item collection schedule."
Dallas residents are asked to hold non-storm related brush or bulk trash until after the storm debris has been cleared.
Severe storms ripped through North Texas over Memorial Day weekend. Strong winds left much of the region without power Tuesday, with the Dallas area receiving a larger amount of outages compared to Denton, Collin, and Tarrant counties.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were about 178,000 outages reported in Dallas County, according to Oncor's outage map. The city of Dallas had a little more than 109,000 outages as of Wednesday afternoon.
A majority of outages in the city of Dallas will be restored Friday, but several heavily damaged areas may not be restored until Saturday, according to a report by the city's Office of Emergency Management.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins signed a disaster declaration Tuesday and said outages would likely last for days.
"This, unfortunately, will be a multi-day power outage situation similar to the one that you saw in Harris County and Houston," Jenkins said during a press conference. "That does not mean if your power is out right now, that it will be out for multiple days. It certainly could be out for multiple days."
Oncor teams were sent out Tuesday morning to assess damages, clear debris and conduct repair work across impacted areas.
During Jenkins' Tuesday press conference, Grant Cruise, Oncor communications manager, said the utility company is asking for assistance from out of state to help with restoration efforts.
"We are working quickly, we are trying to bring people into the state and keep everybody safe," Cruise said. "But you should plan for, you know, extended outages in some parts."
A restoration update from Oncor Wednesday said power was restored to more than 340,000 people within 24 hours. Nearly 5,000 additional personnel were brought in from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, and Virginia to help with restoration efforts.
The National Weather Service forecasts severe storms could return to North Texas Thursday and Friday, bringing large hail and damaging winds.
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