Cleanup from severe storm could cost Tucson, Pima County millions

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - Cleaning up after Sunday night’s storm will be expensive for the city of Tucson and Pima County.

There are several agencies and departments involved in both the city and county, as well as outside contractors, who have their own budgets.

There are dozens of people working to clean up downed trees and power lines, and fix flooded and damaged washes, rooftops, buildings, roadways, and more.

It was a powerful storm packing hurricane-force winds with rain and hail, something Tucson rarely, if ever experiences. Tucson is not built for these types of storms.

“We still have about 30 locations that are in some form of cleanup,” said Sam Credio, the Tucson Transportation Director a day after the storm passed.

He estimated it could take until the end of the week to clean things up but added, there are more storms on the way. There are literally hundreds of trees down across the county.

“Some of these were large, we’ll get them removed piece by piece and chip them up,” Credio said. “Again we’re just going to take our time and make sure everything is done safely, not only for the traveling public but for our workers as well.”

All told, the city had about 25 workers working throughout the night as hundreds of calls came in for help. The county had an additional 15 working all night long to clear roads, get trees off of cars, and block running washes

But even after long, grueling shifts, there’s more to come.

“We just sent them home to get some rest but what they’ll do is probably come back for another 12-hour shift to try to get caught back up,” he said. “And don’t forget, there are other storms planned for later this week, so both trying to get caught up from the last storm and then prepare for the next one.”

While one of the biggest expenses for the city will be overtime costs, they do have a bit of help defraying those costs.

Some of the clean-up is being managed by homeowners and in some cases, the homeless are pitching in by hand to help. They were using hand tools to try to clear a large tree that fell across The Loop bicycle path.

“Just want to give back, to keep the bike road clean for the bikers as well myself,” said Christopher, a homeless man who did not want his last name used. “Just cleaning up basically”

One longtime former county employee said with all the overtime, workers in parks and recreation, sheriffs, and police, a storm like this can cost millions of dollars to clean up.

With more on the way, it could be an expensive monsoon as it adds up quickly.

“There was also some disruption to the streetcar so that doesn’t include the crews that work for Sun Link that were out trying to repair the lines that were damaged on Congress,” Credio said. “They probably had another five or 10 out there themselves, so there were dozens of people out there.”

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