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- A crew from Huffman Contractors LLC works on the first day of the expansion of the program at Brays Bayou, southeast of downtown Houston. (Photo Credit: Al Ortiz)
- A crew from Huffman Contractors LLC works on the first day of the expansion of the program at Brays Bayou, southeast of downtown Houston. (Photo Credit: Al Ortiz)
- The first car the crew retrieved was a black SUV. (Photo Credit: Al Ortiz)
- The program also entails that auto theft investigators from the Houston Police Department will be on site when the vehicles are being extracted. (Photo Credit: Al Ortiz)
An expansion of a 2016 pilot program to remove submerged vehicles from Harris County’s bayous started on Wednesday.
A crew from the company the county has hired for the program through its Flood Control District began working at the intersection of Brays bayou and Lidstone Street, southeast of downtown Houston.
The program is expected to last about 60 days and the goal is to remove approximately 50 vehicles from both the Brays and Sims bayous.
Auto theft investigators from the Houston Police Department (HPD) will be on site when the vehicles are being extracted.
Sandra Ortiz, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), explains that during the pilot phase of the program "we did find that 18 of those vehicles were reported stolen and two of them were used for aggravated robbery."
"So we expect that, you know, something very similar will happen here with this expansion of the program," Ortiz added.
Once removed, the vehicles will be transported for police processing, storage or disposal.
According to the HCFCD, the budget for the program is 218,255 dollars and the funding comes from Harris County Precinct 2 and the City of Houston.