CLEARWATER, Fla. — Driving around Clearwater, it doesn’t take more than a couple minutes to pass at least one large pile of debris leftover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Clearwater Solid Waste Director Kervin St. Aimie says city crews are hard at work trying to clear the debris, but because of the amount, it will be a long process.

“We are working every day,” he said. “We have extended hours. Out city crews and our private contractors working together hand-in-hand, so we could get all this debris off the ground.”

Homeowners in the Island Estates area live in one of the neighborhoods that has been waiting. When crews arrived, resident David Farrar said it was a big relief.

Farrar said cleanup from the storms has been stressful for just about everyone.

“This is just one normal sized house,” he said while walking by a neighbor’s home. “Everything has been moved out.”

Homes all over the area have household items on the curb dripping with dirty water, and Farrar said he just wants to see it taken away.

He said most of the debris in their neighborhood is from Hurricane Helene. 

St. Aimie estimated that it will take up to three months to get all the debris off the streets.

That estimate was not one Farrar wanted to hear, but he said he understood, because there’s just so much debris in so many neighborhoods waiting to be taken away.

“They can only fit a couple of these houses in one truck, and then they have to go and unload and come back,” he said. “It’s not like he’s going down the street, filing up and gets the whole street in one load. It’s a big deal.” 

To help speed up the process, city officials are asking residents to keep their cars away from the piles to make it easier for crews to get to them.

They are also asking residents to sort debris into piles of large appliances, construction debris, and vegetative debris.