Branches and other debris from Hurricane Matthew still litter stretches of Volusia County roads.

  • FEMA approved funds for debris removal on public, not private, roads
  • The county is now asking FEMA for a waiver for private roads
  • Debris collection will cost an estimated $10 million

The county was approved to receive federal assistance to pay for debris removal, but the funding doesn’t include some residents.

Workers have cleared debris in many parts of the county, but for those living on private roads in unincorporated areas, debris still covers the roads.

Debbi McNerney lives in unincorporated Volusia County, near DeLand. She showed News 13 some of the debris she’s picked up and placed on the side of the road for pickup. McNerney noticed debris pickup trucks near her neighborhood, but not on her street.

“No debris pickup trucks were coming around,” she said. McNerney went online and was shocked to discover why trucks were not coming to her street to pick up debris.

“Two days ago, I got a prompt on Facebook saying we were not going to pick up debris on private roads,” McNerney said. “And I said, ‘whoa.’”

McNerney is not alone. There are more than 1,000 private roads in Volusia County, with an estimated 100,000 cubic yards of debris on them.

McNerney went before council members and asked for help. “We only have a pickup truck so it would take us months and months to clear the lane,” she said.

Currently FEMA will only reimburse for pickup on main roads.

“So those people that area getting picked up, the reason they’re getting picked up is because you’ve already been approved by FEMA,” said Voluisa County manager Jim Dinneen.

Now the council is asking FEMA for a waiver to cover the cost of picking up debris on private roads, or pay for the pickup themselves from a discretionary fund.

The estimated cost of collecting all the debris is more than $10 million. Picking up debris on private roads would cost an additional $2 million, according to officials.

As of Wednesday workers have picked up 53,000 cubic yards of debris.