Help on the way for Treasure Island debris removal

TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. (WFLA) — Treasure Island in Pinellas County is one of the areas hit hardest by back-to-back major hurricanes.

Huge Piles of debris are on city streets from both storms.

City officials say it may take months to remove all of the debris, but they have now hired more outside help to speed up the removal process.

On Sunset Beach in Treasure Island, homeowners have worked hard to clean up and repair their homes following Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

They have removed drywall, family possessions, appliances and drywall that was contaminated by floodwater from the storms.

Seeing it piled up outside of their homes is a constant reminder of the trauma from the storms.

“It’s the day upon day of just coming back and really just trying to clean up and the outside stays the same and it gets hard,” said Tom Lance, who lives in a home on Sunset Beach.

Lance said things were bad after Helene and only got worse after Milton.

Jason Beisel with the city of Treasure Island said it may take months for all of the debris to be removed.

“We are being told maybe six months, we are hoping with these extra crews we can get it maybe quicker than that, but people can expect this to be around for a little while,” Beisel said.

He said the city has worked with FEMA to hire more outside contractors to remove the debris to help speed up the process.

“What we had going was working, but it wasn’t going fast enough,” Beisel said.

More help and faster debris removal is good news for Tom Lance.

“That is great news, that is excellent news to hear and to know that they haven’t forgotten about us,” Lance said.

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