ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — St. Lucie County officials told WPTV they’re struggling to find even more contractors to clean up debris from the recent tornadoes.
Joseph Conte has been busy cleaning up the debris from a tornado that damaged his home in Holiday Pines.
“To get it all out to the curb, with the help of a family? [Took me] five hours,” said Conte. “That was with a husband with a chainsaw, with his children, their friend and us over here.”
Conte said he's still not done.
"Still have to clean up. Still have to get parts of the fence that are laying in the yard," he said.
St. Lucie County said it is hoping to clean up all the debris, like Conte’s, by December.
However, county administrator George Landry told WPTV that finding debris haulers has become a challenge
“We're hoping to sit down with them today and try to work out a plan and bring more resources in,” he said.
The county negotiated contracts prior to Hurricane Milton, but those hauling companies said workers are going to areas willing to pay more.
“You can't really be mad at the business for wanting to do that, because it's their business, right?” said Landry.
He added that the county is doing all they can to staff up.
“We're hoping within the next 72 hours, we can double or triple our volume of trucks coming in,” said Landry. “That'll hopefully reduce the scheduling time down that has went out to the public and get it to a much shorter schedule to get the debris up.”
