Fort Bend Making Remarkable Recovery

County Judge

Fort Bend County, TX

Robert E. Hebert

Fort Bend County Judge

  Phone (281) 341-8608 

OR (281)238-3462

www.fortbendcountynews.info

For Immediate Release

Fort Bend County Making Remarkable Recovery

Fort Bend County is making remarkable recovery from Hurricane Ike’s landfall and areas that earlier experienced power outages are slowly getting their power restored and debris removed from roadways.

“We believe all our thoroughfares are now passable thanks to the diligent efforts of our Road and Bridge crews and law enforcement officers,” said Jeff Braun, Fort Bend County Emergency Management Coordinator.

Following the hurricane, CenterPoint Energy is in the process of restoring power to most of their 123,000 customers that were reported without service as of 7 p.m. Saturday.

Hurricane Ike also affected water supply in some Fort Bend communities.

“In Fort Bend, we have a lot of Municipal Utility Districts that run their own water. At this point water issues include the Harris County portion of Missouri City, which has requested Harris County for help.” However, no directive to boil water has been issued in Fort Bend County, he said.

The county is also preparing to monitor its roadways to facilitate smooth re-entry of coastal areas.

“During the actual evacuation, we were committed to facilitate smooth evacuation of our neighbors to the south. We are now preparing to ensure their re-entry will be smooth so that we don’t experience a lot of traffic jams,” said Braun.

The county has also worked closely with fuel distributors and the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management to make sure that gas stations that earlier ran out of fuel were re-stocked.

“We believe that our retailers have enough fuel to satisfy the needs of Fort Bend County citizens. If you don’t need to fill up your car right now, you should wait so that you don’t contribute to traffic congestion.”

Braun said the County was also working with school districts to ensure smooth return to school next week. Fort Bend has also decided to suspend public transportation on Monday, Sept. 15, to allow the buses to be used for the return of over 800 Richmond State School clients and staff from Brenham where they were evacuated to prior to landfall of Hurricane Ike.

Braun commended the fantastic working relationship between the county and its jurisdictions which ensured the safety of all the citizens during the Hurricane Ike event. Braun indicated that over the last two years, the jurisdictions and county emergency responders have trained diligently to respond to such an event.

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