When Hurricane Irma blew through the area on September 10, the effects of winds approaching 100 mph caused massive amounts of vegetation damage. The aftermath will take local municipalities and contracting crews months to completely collect from curbs, where residents have placed neatly piled cut tree trunks and limbs along with smaller vegetation.
Workers in trucks grab the debris, stage it in local holding areas and then transport it to regional disposal sites like in Hillsborough County where it is ground up, said Craig Albrecht, owner of his namesake trucking company based in Laona, Wisconsin.
In St. Petersburg, at the corner of 58th Street N. and First Avenue North, Albrecht works at one such staging area that covers an area nearly the size of a football field. Each trailer hauls 60 cubic yards of material and he pulls two at a time to the dump, he said.
On Wednesday, October 4, he had been working the site for 10 days and said he expects the project to continue every day for two more months. For current information about debris pickup in your geographic area, contact your local city hall or call Pinellas County Public Works at 727-464-8900.
