October 9, 2024
3 read me
Hurricane Milton will send Helene’s debris into Florida as a deadly projectile
Florida is cleaning up storm-ravaged areas before Hurricane Milton makes landfall
Debris left by Hurricane Helene piles up in the street ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall.
Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images
KLIMAWIRE | As Florida braces for Hurricane Milton’s strong winds and major flooding, the state is also grappling with a special danger: debris left by Hurricane Helene that officials fear could be deadly or damaging missiles.
Florida is taking over unprecedented steps clearing streets and parks of appliances, furniture, broken homes and tree limbs ahead of the arrival of Milton, which is expected to hit the Tampa area Wednesday evening as a Category 4 storm.
“We just have to get rid of the debris so it doesn’t become projectiles when this storm makes landfall,” Florida Finance Director Jimmy Patronis said in a televised interview Tuesday, referring to Hurricane Milton.
About supporting science journalism
If you like this article, please consider supporting our award-winning journalism subscribe. By purchasing a subscription, you’re helping to ensure a future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas that shape our world.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered local landfills to remain open around the clock, over the objections of some local officials. Florida Highway Patrol drones are assisting cleanup crews in the Tampa Bay area. The State Department of Environmental Protection has granted emergency permission for the establishment of 218 temporary waste storage sites.
Tropicana Field, the domed stadium in St. Petersburg where the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball, is becoming a base camp for debris removal and other hurricane-related activities.
The Florida Department of Transportation has used its trucks in recent days to remove 175,000 cubic yards of debris associated with Helen from public areas, enough to fill nearly 2,000 swimming pools.
“We’re laser-focused on the debris mission,” FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue said Tuesday on a news channel “We will continue to pick up waste, take it to landfills, until it is no longer safe.”
On Tuesday, Florida officials said they will ask the Biden administration to approve using federal disaster aid to pay cash incentives to trash haulers that are more profitable than a fee based on hauling size.
“Why would you come from Arizona or California with the current incentive?” DeSantis said.
Garbage collectors operating in Florida are receiving police escorts and cheers from onlookers.
“That’s why they appreciate it because it just shows progress,” DeSantis said.
Because it’s clear that haulers won’t be around to remove all of Helen’s debris, officials in the Tampa Bay area have told residents along Milton to keep damaged items in their homes and not pick them up on the street. according to Tampa Bay Times.
Debris cleanup is one of the most difficult and expensive aspects of disaster recovery, taking months and tens of millions of dollars to complete.
States have spent a total of $24 billion on disaster relief after major disasters since 1998, according to an E&E News analysis of federal records. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has paid $21 billion of the cost, which is about $5 billion more than FEMA has spent helping repair roads and bridges.
Florida has spent $5.5 billion on debris removal after major disasters since 1998, more than California and Texas combined and far more than any other state.
But Hurricane Milton has created a unique and dangerous situation because it arrived shortly after Hurricane Helene.
“Most of the time after a storm, you don’t have another storm on your back. These things take months and months to get done,” DeSantis said of the debris removal.
While state officials require garbage haulers to work 24 hours a day, as state agencies are doing, “most of them are not doing it 24/7,” DeSantis said. “The only place that has really had a sense of urgency is Jared (Perdue) and FDOT.”
Patronis, the chief financial officer, said, “There have been some challenges between the contractors and FEMA.”
FEMA typically pays 75 percent of debris removal costs after a disaster and leaves state or local governments to pay the remaining 25 percent. After Helene, President Joe Biden agreed to pay 100 percent of the cleanup costs in Florida and five other states that had been declared major disasters.
Biden’s decision could save Florida taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
But Florida officials are concerned that FEMA pays for debris removal using a fee per cubic yard transported.
“If they’re guaranteed, say, $9 a cubic yard, there’s really no incentive to hit the road and drive three days across the country to get here,” said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division. Emergency management
Guthrie said Tuesday they will ask FEMA to pay trash haulers a predetermined rate every day for 30 to 90 days.
“We want to be able to ensure that people from California, Texas, the Midwest come to Florida,” Guthrie said.
Reprinted E&E News Courtesy of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environmental professionals.
