State ‘commandeers’ stalled debris removal as Hurricane Milton threatens communities devastated by Helene

Image via DeSantis/X

The state of Florida has had its fill of slow debris removal after Hurricane Helene’s devastation and with Hurricane Milton’s looming.

AGov. Ron DeSantis said the Florida Department of Emergency Management would “commandeer” debris removal as needed in the hours before a potential Category 4 storm barrels into the Tampa Bay region, “just to be able to make sure we have a place to put this stuff.”

The Governor wouldn’t say how much could be removed before Hurricane Milton’s effects become too pronounced for haulers to be in streets picking up not just limbs, but household effects that may have been flooded out by Helene’s storm surge.

“Hopefully we can clear it all. I mean, I guess it just depends on, you know, where it’s easy if it’s on a major road, like a kind of like you can go get it. Some of the stuff in the private communities can be a little trickier but bottom line is there’s assets available,” the Governor said.

“There have been some challenges,” said FDEM head Kevin Guthrie, regarding contracts with debris haulers going unfulfilled and “vendors and especially subcontractors that may chase the money then leave.”

DeSantis noted the incoming storm could “produce a lot of debris,” and said local governments had been advised to have their “debris contracts in place and get after it,” but that some made business decisions not to follow through as needed.

“And there’s sometimes where you have the local governments, they don’t want to pay for it even though they’ll get reimbursed and this and that,” DeSantis said, adding that he and Guthrie “were just in Anna Maria island and you know, you go down the road and there’s a lot of debris piled up.”

The Governor also said that a reporter’s assertion that the state had “cut open” the closed landfill in Pinellas was “accurate.”

“The executive order said ’24/7,’ I know Kevin was in contact with the county folks. There was a bunch of state assets that had a lot of debris dump off and it was locked and there was no one there manning it. And so they basically opened it and they did the debris and that’s totally appropriate to be able to do that,” DeSantis said.

“We’ve got to redouble the efforts there and we’re supplementing those efforts in ways that have never been done in the history of the state of Florida. And so those debris missions need to be round the clock,” he added.