Debris piles from Hurricane Helene remain a threat as Hurricane Milton readies to strike the west coast of Florida, NBC News reported.
Florida officials have rushed to clear flattened trees, appliances, and furniture left behind by Helene to prevent the debris from becoming projectiles in Hurricane Milton.
"So in a little over 48 hours — and they were working all through, through the night, in the wee hours of the morning — in [counties] like Manatee, Sarasota, and Pinellas, they were able to remove 55,000 cubic yards of debris," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Tuesday. "So that's over 3,000 truckloads of debris."
DeSantis has ordered landfills to remain open around the clock. Florida Highway Patrol drones also helped cleanup crews in the Tampa Bay area, according to the Scientific American.
"Most times after a storm, you don't have another storm on the back end," he added. "These things tend to take months and months to be able to do."
Sandra Tapfumaneyi, Sarasota County's emergency management chief, told NBC her workers did the best they could.
"Normally, you would have months to clean up that debris. And in a couple of days, you can only do so much," she said. "The county tried, along with its municipalities. We had workers out, teams going curb to curb to try to get things moved to the landfill as quickly as possible."
Milton is projected to hit the Tampa area on Wednesday evening.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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