FORT MYERS, Fla. — County officials announced Monday that waste management teams have collected 1 million cubic yards of debris from Hurricane Ian.
Of that, more than 285,000 cubic yards were of construction and demolition debris; the rest of vegetation.
That is roughly equal to 1.1 million kitchen ovens removed from the road right-of-ways in unincorporated Lee County, officials said.
1.95 million cubic yards of debris was removed in about four and a half months after Hurricane Irma in 2017. At their current pace, Lee County expects to have removed the same amount of Ian debris by the week of November 7.
Roughly 25% of the estimated 4 million cubic yards that had been sitting curbside has already been collected, officials said.
County officials said that in addition to debris and vegetation removal, areas on Estero Boulevard in Fort Myers Beach south to Hickory Boulevard in Bonita Springs also had masses of dirty sand that had to be dug out and taken to multiple debris management sites to be screened of debris.
That sand, once filtered of debris, will be placed back on county beaches to restore the coastline.
