Arkansas couple help clear hurricane in Cedar Park

Cedar Park, Texas – A large black and red modified dump truck is one of several trucks that drive around Cedar Park hauling tree limbs.

The truck hood decoration, shiny chrome pig, definitely makes it unique.

“He was in the truck when I started driving him. What did he look like originally? He had wings, but they broke off, ”said Carey Middleton.

Middleton and his wife Debbie are what is unique about this garbage collection crew. They’re from Arkansas and work for a Missouri cousin’s company that Cedar Park hired. It can be said that sawdust is part of their DNA.

“We have been lumberjacks all our lives. We worked in the forest,” said Debbie Middleton.

Carey, despite being almost 70 years old, has no problem operating a metal claw to lift piles of broken tree branches and even small logs. He was asked if he should be in a rocking chair.

“Must be fishing somewhere,” said Carey Middleton with a laugh.

Meanwhile, Debbie maneuvers around the truck, sweeping and stacking.

“Oh, we’re doing this for the money,” Debbie giggled.

The couple traveled the country, causing one disaster after another for more than a decade.

“We’ve been to Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana,” Debbie said.

Middeltons are usually greeted in the neighborhood with handshakes and bottled water.

“I just meet all these new people and help them,” Carey said.

Marty Smith, who was walking her dog Daisy, was also a little surprised to see who was rushing to the rescue.

“And it inspires me to do things that make me want to go out and walk more, you know. And the sidewalks clearly say that we can do it. That’s good,” Smith said.

In Cedar Park, after a winter storm in early February, it is estimated that the debris collected so far could fill more than 50 football stadiums and rise up to 100 feet. The Middletons were asked how this job compares to all the other disasters they’ve been involved in.

“Oh, it’s easy compared to hurricanes,” Carey said.

These great storms also leave great heartache in their wake.

“Perhaps cleaning the house is, you know, whenever a storm comes, they just throw all their things next to the road. You know they lose everything in a hurricane,” Debbie said.

There are no plans for the Middletons to retire yet.

“I wouldn’t have lasted longer if I had done this. I would have to go fishing, I would have to do something. I can’t sit around doing nothing,” Carey said.

So right now the focus is on the next boot and the next storm.