PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — On Tuesday, John Elias, the Director for Public Works in Charlotte County said nearly 2.5 million cubic feet of debris was left from Hurricane Ian.
“The contractor in discussions with us thinks they will be done with this project “substantially complete” is the term they used by March,” said Elias.
Edward Rensch, who has lived in Port Charlotte for two years said the county needs to work faster.
“That's too long, that is absolutely too long,” said Rensch.
Elias said crews are picking up around 1,000 loads of debris a day, with over 600,000 cubic yards of debris already picked up.
On Tuesday, Rensch said those numbers are hard to believe when he hasn't seen anyone cleaning up the debris on his street.
“I haven't seen anyone cleaning up anything yet. Maybe I am going to the wrong places but I haven't seen anybody cleaning anything I just see more and more debris coming in,” said Rensch.
As more piles of debris stack up along his street, Rensch said it could end up creating another potential problem.
“The deeper concern is somebody driving the street and flicking a cigarette butt out and flying into the pile and it would take nothing just a spark to ignite this stuff and it is so dry and flammable it's ready to go up right now,” said Rensch.
On Tuesday, Elias told Fox 4, Charlotte County has the option to hire two more contractor companies to bring in more debris trucks.
Elias said right now, crews are doing what he called “ a bang-up job,” and they are not bringing in any more trucks at this moment.
If you want to track debris removal in Charlotte County, click here.
