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Some areas of Tampa Bay are still picking up debris from Hurricanes Helene and Milton- but there’s still a long way to go.
St. Petersburg has removed nearly 400 thousand cubic yards of debris – that’s enough trash to fill more than 4,000 swimming pools.
About a third of it was materials like flood-ruined drywall and flooring. The rest was vegetative debris like trees and plants.
Pinellas Public Information Officer Dave Connor said the county estimates the storms generated about one million cubic yards of debris.
“And so far, our crews have been working very long hours, both our contractors and also we’ve trained our own staff, and they’ve removed about 171 thousand cubic yards of debris. So you can see by comparing those two numbers, we do have quite a ways to go,” Connor told WMNF.
Between the two storms, Connor said collectors saw two very different kinds of debris.
“With Helene, since it was much more of a storm surge storm, we saw those coastal areas get hit. But with Milton, there was basically no storm surge because of where the storm made landfall to the south of us. But there were very high winds. We saw a lot more tree debris.” Connor said.
In unincorporated areas, the county is responsible for picking up the trash.
In Hillsborough County, residents can report debris in waterways. To fill out the form, click here.
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