Lee County reaches another Hurricane Ian milestone – 5 million cubic yards of debris collected

12/13/2022

Fort Myers, FL – Lee County has reached another milestone with 5 million cubic yards of debris collected – almost three times more than was collected after Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Five million cubic yards of debris would:

  • Fill Hertz Arena to the ceiling 13 times
  • Fill the 1,250-foot Empire State Building 3.5 times
  • Cover 781 football fields with 3 feet of debris

Specialized trucks working continuously in unincorporated Lee County have removed 118,625 loads of debris from roadsides since collection began Oct. 4.

Crews have now cleared debris from 4,400 miles of Lee County roads. That’s nearly the distance from Fort Myers to London, England.

Crews have cleared more than 133,000 cubic yards of sand from local roads that is being used to renourish county beaches and 52,776 cubic yards of vegetative and structural debris from waterways.

Crews will continue to collect and provide each neighborhood at minimum a second pass for debris removal. Additional passes will be conducted as warranted, particularly in those neighborhoods that experienced both wind damage and severe flooding.

Residents can track debris collection progress at the county’s debris removal information dashboard https://lee-county-fl-debris-removal-thompsoncs.hub.arcgis.com/.

For more information about how to stack your debris, visit www.leegov.com/debris.

For Hurricane Ian response updates and information, check www.leegov.com/storm or follow Lee County Government on Facebook, www.facebook.com/leecountyflbocc. To receive updates from Lee County Government, sign up for the newsletter here: www.leegov.com/resources/newsletters.