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Despite last-minute cleanup efforts, Helene’s rubble remains a threat during Hurricane Milton
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Despite last-minute cleanup efforts, Helene’s rubble remains a threat during Hurricane Milton

TAMPA, Fla. – Towers of trash left over from Hurricane Helene still littered the Florida landscape Wednesday as Hurricane Milton barreled toward the Gulf Coast and trash haulers suspended efforts to remove the debris that could be hazardous in high winds.

With just hours to go before Milton, a Category 4 storm that was already pushing “tornadic supercells,” was expected to make landfall somewhere south of Tampa Bay, the garbage trucks that had been working around the clock had largely disappeared .

And in Tampa, those who chose not to join the exodus from the city gave those piles of destroyed furniture and other household items a wide lead.

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“I’m just afraid the wind is going to pick that stuff up and it’s going to be a projectile,” said Heather McClellan, 34, as she walked past a front yard with a pile of furniture destroyed by Helene.

The contents of homes damaged by Hurricane Helene's flooding are piled on the side of the road in Tampa, Florida, ahead of Hurricane Milton.
Garbage haulers have suspended efforts to remove debris that could be dangerous in high winds.Matt Lavietes / NBC News

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said crews were able to clear a mountain of trash.

“So in just over 48 hours, and they worked all night, into the wee hours of the morning in (counties) like Manatee, Sarasota and Pinellas, they were able to remove 55,000 cubic yards of debris,” he said . “So that’s over 3,000 truckloads of debris.”

DeSantis said crews on the most vulnerable barrier islands were able to remove at least half of the wreckage.

Sandra Tapfumaneyi, head of the Sarasota County Emergency Management Agency, said they did the best they could.

“Normally you would have months to clean up that debris, and you can’t do much in a few days,” she said. “The province, along with the municipalities, we had workers and crews going from sidewalk to sidewalk trying to get the stuff to the landfill as quickly as possible.”

In Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, Kimberly Byer, assistant county administrator for public works, said by email Wednesday that “loose debris can become projectiles in high winds, increasing the risk of personal injury and property damage.”

“We collected 18,000 cubic yards of storm debris and our residents and small contractors collected 17,000 cubic yards, for a total of 35,000 cubic yards,” Byer said.

Byer told NBC News on Tuesday that it was impossible to remove all the debris in time.

“There’s also not enough time and resources,” Byer said. “Many of our contractors have started preparing for Hurricane Milton. So they don’t feel it is safe to be in Hillsborough County… in the eye of the storm.”

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told NBC News on Monday that efforts to clear the streets of remaining trash were hampered when one of the contractors the city hired to help “simply didn’t show up.”

So more city workers were sent out to “pick up as much trash as possible” while they tried to find other waste haulers, she said.

In some cases, Castor said, they relied on “neighbors helping neighbors” to get the trash ready for collection.

“Just to get that garbage out of the way so Milton doesn’t pick it up and use it as a weapon,” she said.

Giancarlos Struse, 26, chose to continue living in his three-story concrete townhouse in Tampa.

“Context is everything – it depends on where you live,” he said. “If you live in a wooden house that is older than 50 to 100 years, you are at much greater risk.”

But even a fortified residence like his wasn’t completely impervious to flying debris, Struse admitted.

The windows, he said, “are a liability.”

Joseph Malinowski rode out Milton the same way he rode out Helene: on his sailboat tied to a pier in Tampa Bay.

Malinowski, who has one leg, went viral on TikTok in recent days for refusing police demands to leave his sailboat. Known to locals as ‘Lieutenant Dan’, he says he feels safer here than on land.

“I was tied up here, the wind was coming from that direction – it was beautiful,” he said of his Helene experience. “I just rode it all the way and woke up in the morning, stuck my head out, looked over there and saw people walking in knee-high water. I’m completely dry.”

Matt Lavietes reported from Tampa and Corky Siemaszko from New York City.