Storm debris pickup in Walton, Okaloosa and Bay: how to sort it so it gets collected

The fastest way to end up with a debris pile on your verge for a month is to put it out wrong. After every storm, the county contractors drive past piles that are bagged, mixed or in the wrong place, and the homeowner finds out when the trucks have moved on.

This is what the programmes announced for Hurricane Isaias require, what Walton County's standing rules say, and how to stack a pile so it goes on the first pass. Rules differ by jurisdiction and get updated during a cleanup, so the sources at the end are the ones to check for your own address.

The rules that are the same everywhere

Storm debris collection on this coast follows the federal reimbursement model, which is why the categories are so consistent from one county to the next.

Separate piles by type. The categories used in Walton County's recent cleanups have been vegetation, construction materials, large appliances, electronics and household hazardous waste. Household garbage stays in your normal cart. The piles must not touch; a pile of limbs with a fence panel in it is a mixed pile, and mixed piles are skipped.

Loose, never bagged. Every Isaias notice we have seen says it. Bagged debris is not collected by the storm contractor. If you have already bagged limbs, cut the bags open and tip them out.

At the road edge, not on it. Walton County asks for debris within ten feet of the edge of the road. Keep it off the pavement, off the sidewalk and clear of the ditch or drain. A pile that blocks drainage is a flooding problem for the whole street the next time it rains.

Away from anything a loader can hit. Mailboxes, utility poles, fire hydrants, water meters, above-ground utility boxes and low-hanging lines. The contractor's grapple truck needs room to swing, and a pile wrapped around a mailbox is left where it is.

Not from your yard to someone else's. Debris has to be in front of the property it came from.

Walton County

The county's disaster FAQ sets the standing rules: separate categories, within ten feet of the road edge, away from mailboxes, utility poles and the roadway, and a plain statement that debris which is not properly sorted or placed will not be picked up and becomes the homeowner's responsibility to dispose of.

For Isaias specifically, check the county's emergency management and disaster pages for the announced start date and the number of passes before you assume collection is running at your address. Unincorporated South Walton, the 30A communities, DeFuniak Springs and Freeport can be on different schedules, and the branded communities along 30A sometimes run their own collection inside the gates.

Where no storm collection is running, Walton County's normal yard waste rules apply, and those have limits on bundle size and length that a storm pile will blow past. That is the point at which hauling becomes the practical answer.

Okaloosa County

Fort Walton Beach contracted DRC Emergency Services for Isaias debris, with curbside collection expected to begin around 14 October and several passes over two to three weeks. No appointment is needed. The city accepts clean vegetative debris such as trees and limbs, and storm-related construction debris such as fences and docks, as two separate piles. Regular yard waste collection is suspended during the cleanup, so do not expect the usual truck to take the overflow. The city's placement rules match the general ones above: loose, separated, away from hydrants, mailboxes and utility boxes, and no hazardous waste or non-organic material in the vegetation pile.

Crestview issued the same instruction: clean vegetative debris and storm-related construction debris at the curb in separate piles, loose rather than bagged.

Unincorporated Okaloosa, Destin and Niceville should check the county and city sites for their own announcements; each incorporated city tends to run its own contract.

Bay County

As of 12 October we have not found an Isaias-specific debris notice from Bay County, which took less of the storm than Okaloosa did. Panama City and Panama City Beach residents should check the county and city sites before stacking to the curb. In Bay County's previous storm cleanups the instruction has been the same two-pile separation, vegetative and construction, at the road edge.

How to build a pile that gets taken

A few things make the difference between a pile that goes on the first pass and one that sits.

• Cut long pieces down. Grapple trucks handle limbs; whole trunks lying across the verge are often skipped or pushed aside. Four to eight foot sections stack and lift cleanly.
• Stack parallel to the road. A pile that runs along the road edge is one grab after another. A pile that sticks out into the street or back up the drive is a problem.
• Root balls are vegetation, but knock the sand off if you can; a root plate full of wet sand weighs more than the limbs attached to it.
• Keep fence posts with concrete on them in the construction pile, not with the limbs.
• Treated lumber, shingles and screen panels are construction debris. Pressure-treated wood never goes in the vegetation pile; it contaminates the mulch the vegetation is ground into.
• Do not add stumps you ground yourself or debris from clearing a lot; most programmes exclude both.

What gets excluded

Every programme has exclusions, and they are where the arguments happen.

• Household garbage and recycling.
• Debris from land clearing, new construction or renovation work unrelated to the storm.
• Debris on private property away from the right-of-way.
• Often, debris on private roads and inside gated communities, unless the county has a right-of-entry agreement for that community.
• Sometimes, debris generated by a paid contractor. This one varies; ask.

If any of these apply, the debris is yours to haul, and the dump, the transfer station or a hauler is the route.

Where we fit in

Our storm cleanup service does the cutting, sorting and stacking to whatever your county's contractor requires, so the pile is gone on the first pass, and where collection is not running or your debris is excluded, we haul it ourselves. Tree work, including sectional removal of anything on a structure, is in-house; see tree removal. Send a photo of the pile and your address and we will tell you which rules apply and what it takes.