Debris

Charlotte County said it is investigating several cases of suspected illegal dumping of debris from Hurricane Ian. Charlotte says it believes out-of-state contractors may be dumping at places around the county, rather than taking trash to the landfill and paying disposal fees.

More than 150 volunteers from Team Depot, The Home Depot’s associate volunteer force, and another 30 to 50 volunteers from Team Rubicon, a veterans volunteer organization, arrived early Thursday to help residents in a Port Charlotte neighborhood clean out their homes, removing flooring and drywall, and working with chainsaw teams to remove debris from the area.

As of the close of business Monday, the Small Business Administration has received 30,588 loan applications from Floridians intending to rebuild and repair after the catastrophic category four storm washed ashore Sept. 28.

Lee County and the City of Cape Coral are expressing satisfaction with the pick-up of debris from Hurricane Ian. Officials with the county and city are asking residents to be patient: the big debris trucks are coming to your street, and for more than one pick-up.

The 20,717 loads of debris collected since clean-up began translates 734,136 cubic yards of vegetation and 285,282 cubic yards of construction and demolition debris as of Monday morning — or what the county compared to roughly 1.1 million kitchen ovens removed from the road right-of-ways in unincorporated Lee County.

Did you ever wonder how “they” come up with a complicated estimate of something, like the tons of debris create by Hurricane Ian, which hit Lee County as a Category 4 tropical cyclone Sept. 28?A Lake Mary-based company helping to compile that figure is in a hiring blitz, turning Hurricane Ian into an opportunity to earn as much as $1,300 a week.Call the position a Post-Cyclonic Rubbish Removal Quality Control Specialist, but the reality is less fancy: stand around and watch trash collectors collects trash. And write it down.Thompson Consulting Services needs people to document how much hurricane-related debris is collected by companies Lee County has hired to haul away all the tree limbs, coconuts, garbage, and other debris. The job is not collecting the trash, but counting the amount that others do.

It’s been over a month since Hurricane Irma hit Florida, and Lee County leaders have now decided to send a letter to the White House, asking that FEMA…