City staff provides recommendations to help expedite process
Although the City of Sarasota initiated its storm debris collections on Oct. 16, leaders and staff of the municipality are asking residents for plenty of patience, please, given the volume of materials that Hurricanes Helene and Milton together strewed seemingly everywhere.
In an Oct. 18 report to the City Coalition of Neighborhood Associations of Sarasota (CCNA), Deputy City Manager Patrick Robinson wrote, “Now that we have activated the contractors, and they have driven the entire area their estimate of debris that is down in the City of Sarasota is 250,000 [to] 400,000 cubic yards.”
Robinson added, “According to staff that will take over 12,000 truckloads to remove,” as each truck has the capacity of approximately 21 cubic yards.
“The County’s last estimate was over 2,000,000 cubic yards of debris in the County of Sarasota,” he noted. “This is a local, state, and national issue. It will take time, but I assure you we’re working on it.”
An Oct. 17 city news release pointed out, “Additional contractors, trucks and facilities will be brought online in the coming days to expedite the collection process.”
On Oct. 23, in response to a Sarasota News Leader inquiry, Jan Thornburg, general manager of the city’s Communications Department, wrote with emphasis in an email, “As of this morning, a total of 62,294 cubic yards or 87,211 tons have been collected since the start of storm debris collection on Oct. 16.”
To put that into perspective, Thornburg pointed out, in all of 2023, the city collected a total of 4,149 tons of regular residential yard waste as well as special vegetative pickups. “We expect to far exceed that annual tonnage just for these two storms,” she wrote.
Mayor Liz Alpert also addressed post-Milton issues in an Oct. 18 newsletter that city staff distributed.
“Recovery is on everyone’s minds right now, and the City is here to help,” Alpert said in that newsletter. “Crews from the Public Works, Parks and Recreation, and Utilities Departments have been working around the clock to restore the hardest-hit areas of our city. We want to assure residents that recovery is our highest priority, and we will do everything we can to restore Sarasota.”
Then Alpert acknowledged, “I understand that storm debris cleanup is one of the most important aspects of post-storm recovery, especially after many residents were impacted by two major hurricanes back-to-back. Immediately following the storm, the City activated its three emergency storm debris pickup contractors to expedite the cleanup process and return a sense of normalcy to our residents most affected by Hurricane Milton.”
Alpert added, “Thank you to City staff who have dedicated long hours and weekends to storm recovery, many of whom prioritized the well-being of our community before assessing damages at their own homes after the storm.”
Do’s and don’ts for storm debris collections
City staff has been advising residents of actions they can take to expedite the storm debris collections, with some emphasis:
First, staff is reminding the public that storm debris “should not be put into plastic bags.”
Further, staff notes that the debris should be placed into “4 piles, as follows”:
- 1. Construction debris— fencing, carpeting, dry wall and other flood-impacted construction materials.
- 2. White goods— appliances, including refrigerators, ranges, washing machines, dryers, air conditioning units and water heaters.
- 3. Bulk items— furniture and accessories, mattresses and other items affected by floodwater within a home or structure
- 4. Vegetative debris— downed tree branches, limbs and vegetative material, including regular yard waste.
Moreover, staff has emphasized these stipulations, to enable the contractors to collect the materials:
- Debris piles should be 6 feet from any trees, mailboxes, utility boxes, etc., “to allow space for collection equipment to maneuver.
- “Do not place debris piles in the street” or block sidewalks.
- Vehicles should be parked away from debris piles.
The advisory included this, as well: “Reminder — Regular garbage and recycling pickup has resumed. Yard waste can be placed into vegetative debris piles for the duration of storm debris collection.
Debris from Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton does not need to be separated.”
Questions may be directed to the storm debris collection hotline: 833-947-7739, the release adds.