As Polk County residents braced themselves for Nicole, many of them were still recovering from Hurricane Ian.

“The biggest thing was downed trees and home floods. Furniture, carpets,” said Demitri Kelley of Precision Junk Removal. “A lot of people are gutting their houses, walls, everything is coming down.”

Hurricane Ian left the city pretty shaken up. Polk County officials said at least 75 trucks are still driving through the city every day, picking up damage Ian left behind. They hired AshBritt Inc. to help clean up the county.

“To date we have collected right at 700,000 cubic yards of vegetative debris within the county,” said Rob Ray, AshBritt’s Sr. Vice President.

“For a visual effect, you would have to place nearly 20,000 40-cubic-yard dumpsters throughout the county to be used in order to collect the amount of debris AshBritt's subcontractors have collected to date in Polk County.”

We visited a sandbag site in Auburndale a few hours before Tropical Storm Nicole was upgraded to a hurricane and noticed that people were more nervous this time, then they were right before Hurricane Ian hit.

“We weren’t prepared for the last hurricane. The whole house was flooded - the yard, trees,” said David Howell. “We just want to make sure the house doesn’t flood so, we’re trying to prepare for the worse.”

Howell and his family were among several at the sandbag site that day.

Hurricane Nicole did not bring as much destruction the county as Hurricane Ian but people who spoke with Spectrum Bay News 9 said Ian was a good reminder to always be prepared for the worse.

Polk County Board of Commissioners released this press release on November 7:

After 35 days of hurricane debris collection from Ian, Polk County’s contracted hauler, AshBritt,Inc. has picked up 723,476 cubic yards, or roughly 180,869 tons of debris which has been registered for FEMA at the debris management sites.

About 75 tandem trucks, which are two units connected, are running throughout the county daily. When the county began collection on October 3, trucks started in the southern portion of the county and how now worked their way into the Northeast. Residents will start seeing a heavier concentration of trucks from Haines City to Poinciana this week.

“We are aware of some gaps and holes in our coverage area,” said Deputy County Manager Ryan Taylor. “Every route is being mapped by TetraTech, our debris hauling monitoring service. “In many neighborhoods, tandem trucks cannot enter streets that are narrow, have narrow cul-de-sacs, or dead end. The trucks are too long to navigate these areas. In these situations, debris will not be able to be collected until smaller trucks are available.”

Residents are also reminded that these claw trucks that are picking up debris cannot navigate obstructions, such as power lines, low tree canopies, cars parked in the streets, or permanent objects including trees, mailboxes or fences. If vegetative debris is co-mingled with fencing, construction materials and household items, it will not be picked up until the final pass. Leaves, moss and small twigs must be bagged for collection.

The second pass of debris collection will begin the week after Thanksgiving, moving from north to south back across Polk County.

If your debris has been collected, Polk County also asks that you clean any remaining leaves or small sticks that may have been left behind in the roadway.