Debris from Tropical Storm Harvey still litters the city five months after the devastating floods while the contract for debris pick up has expired.

The debris may be the likely cause for last weekend’s flooding in several Greater Port Arthur neighborhoods. Residents believe the debris clogged culverts and kept rainwater from reaching pump stations.

Laylan Copelin, a spokesman for the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas, said help was offered early on after Tropical Storm Harvey flooding but not accepted by the city.

“In instances where local officials feared their local debris haulers would leave them for more money, either the governor sent in TxDOT or the commission provided private debris haulers below the local contractor’s price demands — or both,” Laylan Copelin, a spokesman for the Commission to Rebuild Texas, said. “The commission offered this help to Port Arthur several times over several months, but the mayor declined the offers until now, although the cost of debris removal is reimbursed 100 percent by the state and federal government.”

Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman said in a previous news story that Port Arthur had a contract in place with Gulf Crowder, which would make three passes around the city to pick up debris and ended up staying an additional 10 days.

The debris collection business is a competitive one, Freeman said, and he said a number of cities saw their contractors leave to make more money in Florida where cleanup was being performed after Hurricane Irma.

So the city of Port Arthur opted for the contract they had in hand instead of accepting help from the commission through the Texas Department of Transportation, worrying that by adding a second contractor they would lose the first one.

The Commission provided statistics for work done by TxDOT post-storm. TxDOT completed 27 requests from cities and counties that needed assistance; 1,961 employees were involved in off-system debris removal; and more than 20,500 cubic feet of debris was removed. This does not include the cities and counties that were assisted by other private contractors recruited by the Commission to Rebuild Texas to supplement the efforts of local officials and their debris haulers.

Cities or counties with completed requests included the city of Palacious, city of Seadrift, city of Bay City, Montgomery County, Hardin County, Wharton County, Jefferson County, city of Beaumont, city of Rose Hill Acres, city of Victoria, city of League City, Brazoria County, city of Rose City, city of Pine Forest, city of Pearland, Harris County, DeWitt County, city of Katy, Orange County, city of Friendswood, city of Dickinson, San Jacinto County, city of Yoakum, Aransas County, city of Hitchcock and city of Houston.