Hurricane debris still lines road in Fort Myers Shores

Over 70 feet of memories formed a giant pile of debris at the end of Aruba Avenue in Fort Myers Shores on Thursday.

“The pile is less than Ian, but it’s still depressing to see everyday,” said Cary Royall, a resident who live on Aruba Avenue. “Everything we worked to rebuild after Ian is now there.”

Royall said that other streets in her neighborhood have been all cleaned up, while hers still has debris.

“(It was) never picked up after Helene,” said Royall. “They’ve never been by after Milton. They’ve been through all of the other streets in our neighborhood except for my street.”

Royall told WINK county crews have only picked up specific things from her neighborhood.

“They picked up the plant debris, and they said they picked up the hazardous waste,” said Royall. “That’s it. That’s all they picked up.”

In the weeks since Milton, Royall said that she repeatedly contacted the county.

“We’re forgotten,” said Royall. “I’ve called the county a few times. They give me no answers and just a runaround and say, ‘We’ll get to you.'”

• RELATED: Lee County officials share progress on post-Milton debris cleanup

WINK News reached out to Lee County to find out more. A spokesperson said that safety is the reason why the debris has not been picked up yet on Aruba Avenue.

“There is a low-hanging wire that hampers the ability of the debris contractor to collect the material,” said Betsy Clayton, communications director for Lee County, in an email to WINK News. “Lee County is working with its contractor to resolve the issue and collect the debris.”

Clayton added: “Had there not been this safety issue, the debris would have already been collected like it was on the neighboring streets.”

Neighbors said they hoped the solution would come quickly.

“I would like us to be just to be able to even start to recover from this,” said Royall. “We can’t even start to recover in this neighborhood yet.”

Lee County said in a press release on Dec. 3, it will collect the remaining hurricane debris starting Dec. 9.

The county is urging residents to prepare prior to the removal day.

The county shared the following tips to ensure the debris gets picked up:

• Set storm debris at the curb away from your normal household trash and recycling; it will be collected and documented separately
• Make three separate piles: 1) appliances 2) yard waste 3) construction and demolition debris
• Set out storm debris only for this final push. Debris crews will not collect additional material from your yard. Everything set at the curb must be storm-related debris.
• Do not place anything under low-hanging obstacles like trees or power lines.
• Avoid stacking debris near fire hydrants and mailboxes.