Navigating trick-or-treating on debris lined streets in Charlotte County

Some little witches and warlocks will have to brave debris-lined streets this Halloween. Many areas of Charlotte County are still in clean-up mode after facing Hurricane Milton‘s wrath.

If your neighborhood is lucky enough to not have debris, you may be seeing more trick-or-treaters at your door, downtown Punta Gorda will not host its Halloween event.

Skeletons, sharks, and sofas – oh my!

“I love Halloween. So, I like to see everything decorated. It is cool,” said a group of Punta Gorda friends. “I think there’s gonna be damage, so I don’t know, like, how it’s gonna go.”

Just days away from trick-or-treaters, debris still haunts parts of Charlotte County.

“So far, we’ve collected 57 cubic yards of debris, almost all of it construction and demolition debris. That’s about three and a half football fields worth of debris, 10 feet high,” said Brian Gleason, Communications Director of Charlotte County. “Our priority is to get the hardest hit areas first.”

With costumes ready and waiting on candy, these kiddos know this year will be different.

“It’s usually really packed, and all the houses are decorated with stuff,” said the friends.” But I don’t think it’s gonna be like that this year since the storm”

While they’re picking up sweets, parents hope this Hurricane Helene and Milton graveyard can get cleaned up.

“It’s slow, slow, slow,” said Punta Gorda resident Kevin Lutz. ” it’s starting to try to get, you know, everyone’s trying to get back to normal.”

In early October, Florida Gov. Ron Desantis announced that nearly 3,000 people from various agencies would assist with the cleanup.

WINK News has contacted the state to find out if and when they’ll be coming to southwest Florida to pick up what Milton and Helene have left behind, but we have not yet heard back.