Lee County has so far collected one million cubic yards of debris from Hurricane Ian. 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 — or what the county compared to roughly 1.1 million kitchen ovens removed from the road right-of-ways in unincorporated Lee County.
During the entire Hurricane Irma cleanup effort in 2017, Lee County removed 1.95 million cubic yards of debris in about four and a half months. With the current pace, Lee County expects to have removed the same amount of Hurricane Ian debris by the week of November 7. This represents a collection rate 77% faster than collections after Hurricane Irma.
Roughly 25 percent of the estimated 4 million cubic yards that had been sitting curbside has already been collected. Due to the extensive damage countywide, county staff expect that more debris will be brought to the curb in the coming months. According to Lee County, there are more than 1,000 people working on debris and waste recovery with about 200 local residents, many who lost their jobs due to the hurricane, now working as debris monitors.