Spartanburg Co. continues cleanup efforts post-Helene storm debris

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. – Spartanburg County is continuing cleanup efforts after Hurricane Helene.

County officials said crews have started removing debris on larger roads, and will then move on to smaller roads.

According to leaders, Hurricane Helene has left a record amount of storm debris.

“We’ve never had this much storm debris,” said Scottie Kay Blackwell with Spartanburg County. “We are estimating half a million cubic yards of debris across our county at least.”

The historic storm left piles and piles of storm debris, a sight resident Anthony Dawkins had not seen before.

“Never, never I would have never thought that this would happen in the upstate,” Dawkins said.

When Dawkins is not at work, he’s chipping away at the mess in his yard.

“I try to do a little bit before I leave in the mornings and a little bit when I come in the evenings,” Dawkins added. “Basically all of my trees are down except for 5 or 6. It’s very, very stressful, it’s very, very messy but I am a professional landscaper and this is what I do.”

Spartanburg officials said starting this week, residents will start to see some of that debris get picked up and haul off.

“We are including all county residents, It doesn’t matter where you live, if you are a HOA community, a gated community, we will make our rounds to you and we are asking residents not to panic if they see a truck in their neighborhood and the truck doesn’t pick up their debris during that pass, they will be back,” Scottie Kay Blackwell said.

The county is asking debris be placed at the edge of your property away from fire hydrants, mail boxes and standing trees.

“It doesn’t matter the weight, it doesn’t matter the size as long as it’s not bagged in any bags we will pick it up,” Blackwell said.

While many of the same rules apply, some municipalities in the county have set additional guidelines.

• The City of Spartanburg is asking for branches to be trimmed to 6 feet or less.
• The City of Wellford is asking debris be chopped up in pieces that are no longer than 4 feet.

Most municipalities said the clean up process will take time to complete.

“It will take several months, possibly into the next calendar year but again we have tons of crews, we have tons of monitors and we think the quicker folks can get that debris out to the edge of their property curbside, the quicker we can pick it up and move on from this disaster,” Blackwell said.

The county said they have contracted DRC Emergency Service to go to every house in the county to remove storm debris, and have hired 470 debris monitors to ensure that debris is hauled away properly.

Any questions on additional guidelines in your municipality? Officials recommend reaching out to your local government for more information.

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