Removing debris could take weeks
With lots of help from Hurricane Irma, Ana D’Estrada built a shoulder-high wall of sticks and twigs on the side of her home in Winter Park.
“My biggest question would be: When might we see it all picked up?” she asked, wearing a pink hat for shade and leaning on a rake on Kings Way. “I hesitate to even say that in light of what we’ve been through. I thank God we have weathered this as well as we have. All you have to do is look to South Florida, look at Houston, the Keys. We can’t complain.”
Nonetheless, her question is one being asked from Apopka to Windermere, where the cleanup from Irma has stacks of tree limbs waiting at curbs — with much more to come. Local officials say the answer is soon, but for many communities “soon” means getting
started on the piles next week at the earliest.
“All your yard mess, just stack it out there,” Winter Garden City Manager Mike Bollhoefer said. “We’re making rounds. Once we finish one, we’ll start over ‘til every bit’s cleaned up.”
He estimated it would take two weeks or more to remove the clutter from the curbs of the west Orange city.
To expedite the cleanup, most communities aren’t requiring residents to bag or bundle fronds, branches, sticks or twigs.
Central Florida officials say local governments are shouldering the upfront costs to remove the debris and plan to apply for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A federal disaster declaration has been issued for all 67 Florida counties.
According to preliminary assessments, Irma’s haphazard pruning created about 1 million cubic yards of tree limbs, palm fronds and other green debris in unincorporated Orange County.
Ralphetta Aker of Orange County Public Works said that’s far less than the 2.6 million cubic yards created collectively in Central Florida by hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne in 2004.
Seminole County officials also estimated their county has 1 million cubic yards of storm debris to get rid of — enough to fill Spaceship Earth, EPCOT’s geodesic sphere, about 12 times.
Irma made a bigger mess than Hurricane Matthew last October.
Aker did not immediately offer an estimate of removal costs for Orange County, which is hiring contractors with claw trucks to grab the debris off curbs.
Orlando won’t start picking up storm debris until Monday and Seminole County won’t start until Tuesday.
A tweet from Casselberry’s Twitter account announced debris removal would start Monday and last two weeks. It also said, “The City cannot provide date/time for each street at this time.”
Lake County plans to start picking up Friday.
Trucks picking up storm debris can hold about 80 cubic yards of waste, nearly four times the capacity of ordinary garbage trucks.
Central Florida officials said citizens should check with government websites for more specific information about rules and individual neighborhoods.
Some officials said finding contractors with the right equipment to pick up storm debris was an extra challenge because many crews headed to Houston in August after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas.
Apopka Mayor Joe Kilsheimer estimated 300 or more trees in Orange County’s second-largest city were knocked down by Irma’s high winds.
Orange County also opened 10 drop-off sites for tree and yard waste for citizens who wanted to haul their own debris instead of waiting for the claw truck. Debris drop-off sites can be found at www.ocfl.net/debris or by calling 3-1-1.
Akers said the sites are not for commercial landscapers, who will be redirected to the landfill.
On Kings Way in Winter Park, D’Estrada paused from raking her pile of tree limbs to offer thanks to neighbors who helped her.
“It just helps the soul when you see things picked up.” shudak@ orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6361