Residents Need To Follow Rules On Clean Up

Lessons learned from the 2015 Ice Storm will help Putnam County follow all the necessary procedures and protocols in cleaning up after Tuesday’s tornado.

County Mayor Randy Porter said failure to follow the rules on what can be disposed of and how it should be disposed can slow relief funds. It could even cause a community not to get those federal funds.

“Urge folks not to be doing that now because that invalidates our FEMA guidelines and could hurt us on our funding, Porter said.

Landscape debris, for example, and bricks or wood must be dealt with differently, under rules from both state and federal agencies.

“You cannot mix building materials with tree limbs and brush and debris,” Porter said. “Even on the building construction materials, they have to be sorted.”

Porter said residents should not push out items to the right-of-way and expect it be picked up. Road crew have been clearing debris off the roadways and off the rights-of-way. Porter said the volume of the debris will likely lead to an outside vendor being hired to help.

The city and county continue to work on specific details of a plan to deal with the debris. Porter said meetings will continue Thursday and details will be shared as soon as possible.