Cleanups in Austin will continue through the end of April, city officials said.

So far, more than 100,000 tons of debris from the February ice storm have been collected.

“We’re very excited to see crews come and clean it up and take care of it for us,” said Lacey Walton, a Southwest Austin resident.

Residents of Southwest Austin have long been waiting for the cleanup, who have been patiently waiting for crews to come out to pick up the hurricane debris.

“Almost a day or two after the ice melted. We had huge piles of rubbish, four or five feet, and they literally filled all our streets,” Walton said.

70 crews are working to collect major branches and branches from Austin Resource Recovery clients.

Once collected, the collected hurricane debris is transported to one of three temporary designated areas in the park, where the debris is turned into mulch.

“[We have] collected about 100,000 tons of material. For reference, 100,000 tons of material equates to approximately 65,000 truck loads,” said Ken Snipes, director of Austin Resource Recovery.

Three park locations are Circle C Ranch Metro Park, Bolme District Park, and Old Manor Road.

Once the trash is mulched, it is loaded onto a tractor trailer and hauled to Austin Water.

“[It is] then transferred to the biological solids processing plant Dillo Dirt from there,” said Amy Slagle, head of Austin Resource Recovery.

Austin isn’t the only city doing this, the city of Round Rock also uses a similar method.

Recently, the Round Rock Fire Department responded to a fire at one of the temporary bush dump sites near East Palm Valley. According to official data, the excavator and mulcher caught fire. The crews were able to extinguish it.

Officials in Austin say they are working to ensure that this does not happen at any of their facilities.

“The way to reduce the risk of fire here is to just keep the process in motion, so this material here is not very long,” Snipes said.

For removals, crews use 311 service requests to determine which areas are ready for collection and should be prioritized first. 39,000,311 requests were made.

“The hardest hit areas are Northwest Austin, West Austin, and Southwest Austin. Circle C also had incredible damage, which is why most of the calls came from there, ”said Slagle.

Cleaning is expected to last until the end of April.

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