October 9, 2024
3 minimum read
Hurricane Milton: Helen debris turns into deadly projectiles in Florida
Florida is busy clearing storm-damaged areas before Hurricane Milton makes landfall
Debris left behind by Hurricane Helen is piling up on roads ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall.
Brian R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images
Climate wire | As Florida prepares for Hurricane Milton’s ferocious winds and massive flooding, officials fear a unique danger: debris left behind by Hurricane Helen could become a deadly or destructive missile. is concerned.
Florida is taking an unprecedented step to remove appliances, furniture, broken homes and tree branches from roads and parks ahead of the arrival of Milton, which is expected to hit the Tampa area as a Category 4 storm Wednesday night. Measures are being taken.
“We’re just removing debris so that when this storm makes landfall, it doesn’t become a flying object,” Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said in a television interview Tuesday, referring to Hurricane Milton. said.
About supporting science journalism
If you enjoyed this article, please consider supporting our award-winning journalism. Currently subscribing. By subscribing, you help ensure future generations of influential stories about the discoveries and ideas that shape the world today.
Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered local landfills to remain open 24 hours a day, 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 granted emergency permission to establish 218 temporary debris storage sites.
Tropicana Field, the domed stadium in St. Petersburg where the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball, has been converted into a base camp for debris removal and other hurricane-related activities.
In recent days, the Florida Department of Transportation has used its own trucks to remove 175,000 cubic yards of Helen-related debris from public areas. That’s enough to fill about 2,000 pools.
“We have been fully committed to the debris removal mission,” FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue said at a news conference Tuesday. “We will continue to collect debris and take it to the landfill until it is no longer safe.”
Florida officials announced Tuesday that they will seek approval from the Biden administration to use federal disaster aid to pay garbage collectors better financial incentives than fees based on the amount of trash they collect.
“With the current incentives, why would they come from Arizona or California?” DeSantis said.
Garbage collectors in Florida receive a police escort and cheers from onlookers.
“They appreciate this because it just shows progress,” DeSantis said.
After it became clear that haulers would not be able to remove all the debris from Helen, officials in the Tampa Bay area asked residents to keep their damaged belongings at home during Milton and to come out on the street to pick them up. The newspaper reported that they were instructed not to leave it there. tampa bay times.
Debris removal is one of the most difficult and expensive parts of disaster recovery, taking months and costing tens of millions of dollars to complete.
Since 1998, states have spent a total of $24 billion on debris removal after major disasters, according to an E&E News analysis of federal records. The Federal Emergency Management Agency paid $21 billion of the cost, about $5 billion more than FEMA spent repairing roads and bridges.
Since 1998, Florida has spent $5.5 billion on debris removal after major disasters, more than California and Texas combined and far more than any other state.
But Hurricane Milton created a unique and dangerous situation because it arrived so soon after Hurricane Helen.
“Most of the time, after a storm, you don’t have another storm on the back end. It tends to take months before you can do this kind of work,” DeSantis said of debris removal.
State officials are encouraging garbage collection companies to work 24 hours a day, as state agencies do, but “most companies are not operating 24/7,” DeSantis said. said. “Jared (Purdue) and FDOT were the only ones that really had a sense of urgency.”
“There have been some challenges between the contractors and FEMA,” said Patronis, the finance director.
FEMA typically pays 75% of the cost of debris removal after a disaster, with state or local governments covering the remaining 25%. After Helen, President Joe Biden agreed to pay 100 percent of the cleanup costs for Florida and five other states that 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 on a per-cubic-yard basis.
“For example, if you’re only guaranteed $9 a cubic yard, there’s really no incentive for them to travel three days across the country to get here,” said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Department. says Mr. emergency management.
Guthrie announced Tuesday that he would require FEMA to pay garbage collectors a set daily rate for 30 to 90 days.
“We want to ensure that people from, say, California, Texas, the Midwest come to Florida,” Guthrie said.
Reprinted from E&E News Published with permission of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides news that matters to energy and environment professionals.
