ORANGE, Texas — Soon, all those piles of storm debris in Orange County could be gone. Homeowners will face a significant deadline Wednesday as debris from Hurricane Laura, needs to be in place and ready for pickup.
Laura left some big scars in Orange County, and debris still lines a lot of the roads in the county. Wednesday is the deadline for Orange County homeowners to put out their Hurricane Laura debris for pickup.
The debris can include trees and vegetation as well as construction and demolition debris.
Clean up crews will take pictures along the way, so if yours isn't out in time, you run the risk of not having it picked up.
"It is time consuming and we do appreciate their patience with this whole operation in getting these debris piles picked up," said Orange County Emergency Management Coordinator Joel Ardoin.
Ardoin said conditions could have been worse, but thankfully the county dodged the worst of Hurricane Delta.
"We apparently got skipped over on that and it ended up hitting some of the west end of Orange County, but the Port Arthur-Beaumont area got some higher winds than what we got here," Ardoin said.
Ardoin said it's important for people to make separate piles if they have debris from Hurricane Delta.
"It's a FEMA regulation that requires that we separate those,” Ardoin said. “I know that sounds crazy, but it is a FEMA requirement."
David Studdert, who owns Mowers Tractors store in Orange, lost both cinderblock walls at each end of his building during Laura. That debris remains piled up outside.
"Well it'll just kind of put it behind us, you know. I mean, it's just more progress to get this debris away from the store," Studdert said.
Studdert said during Delta, some insulation from his debris piles blew around, but everything else remained intact. He said he feels fortunate the damage to his store wasn't worse.
"We did get damage, but it's not something we can't recover from," Studdert said.
Like many in Orange County, Studdert said the debris pickup can't come soon enough.
