Lee County surpassed the 100,000-cubic-yard milestone for vegetative and construction debris collection in unincorporated areas post-Hurricane Milton this week. The total amount of collections including sand is approximately 152,876 cubic yards.

Sand operations will continue along with construction and vegetative debris collections. Hurricane Milton washed ashore thousands of cubic yards of sand needing to be cleaned up from roadways. Sand collection has reached 41,387 cubic yards, or 27% of total debris collected. Once sand is collected, it is brought to a sand staging site where it is screened. Screened sand is then placed into needed areas throughout the county.

Lee County is committed to transparency with the public about cleanup efforts and has information readily available online. Visit www.leegov.com/hurricane/milton/debris. Or go to the Debris Removal Information Dashboard, which has an up-to-date debris removal map provided by the county’s contractor. The dashboard is at: https://lee-county-debris-removal-3-thompsoncs.hub.arcgis.com/

Lee County Government commends residents in unincorporated areas who have placed their debris to the curb in separate piles. Because of residents’ efforts, contracted debris haulers have worked efficiently to clean up storm debris from the right-of-way.

Residents with questions can call Lee County Solid Waste customer service at 239-533-8000. Additional information is available at www.leegov.com/storm.

Commercial property owners of sites such as industrial parks, golf courses, cemeteries, apartments, condominiums and trailer parks are reminded that Lee County is not responsible for collecting their storm debris. Per FEMA, those property owners are expected to work with their insurance providers to cover the cost of debris removal.