ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — 8 On Your Side went inside a debris management site in St. Petersburg. The city said they have never collected this much debris in such a short amount of time.
The process of clearing the streets and collecting debris relies on debris management sites. The site off 72nd Street in St. Petersburg, near Azalea Park, is one of four in the city.
“This site alone has received and processed over 810 thousand cubic yards of debris,” said Reid Loper, the Senior Vice President of Crowder Gulf, a nationwide disaster debris removal firm.
Their units haul about 160 cubic yards per load.
“So the 1.3 million cubic yards that’s been picked up and processed throughout the city of St. Petersburg that would equate to 62 thousand dump truck loads that’s been removed from your right of ways,” Loper said.
In 60 days, they said they’ve picked up 7 million cubic yards of debris from Hurricanes Helene and Milton across the state. That’s enough to fill Raymond James Stadium twice.
At the management site, the debris is unloaded, sorted, then processed for final disposal. They’ve been hauling for 40 days, and this is just one contracted company.
There is still a lot of debris out in some neighborhoods on the northside.
“You might have some houses that have three truckloads, you know, and we’ve got places in the state right now where it’s taking like 45 stops of the truck to make one load because they’re not huge piles,” Loper said. “You wouldn’t ask anybody to build a skyscraper in 30 days. This is the same kind of magnitude and undertaking. I think it’s record breaking how quick things have happened thus far.
8 On Your Side saw the big hauling trucks in Rivera Bay Friday afternoon. We’re told the city will be opening up Toy Town as another debris removal site to help relieve the northside areas of debris.
The site on 72nd Street is also available for citizens to drop off debris on their own, if they can.
