From Staff Reports

ASHEVILLE — Original estimates of debris needing removal in Buncombe County — resulting from Tropical Storm Helene that wreaked her wrath in the area on Sept 27  — “erred on the side of caution” and have since been revised, Buncombe County spokesperson Johanna Cano said recently, the Asheville Citizen Times reported on April 8.

Specifically the  ACT noted that Helene’s wratch left the following:

“Massive, multiple foot wide logs. Bags of old, flooded products and drywall. Soggy mattresses and personal detritus from homes destroyed in the floods. 

“Those are just a few types of debris collected by contractors after Tropical Storm Helene, and according to original estimates given by county and city officials they’ve only collected a fraction of it. 

Now, debris removal is winding down and those estimates are being revised.”

To that end, County Manager Avril Pinder said on April 2 that, for all “intents and purposes,” right-of-way debris removal for Buncombe County has ended.

The ACT added, “The end of the program means the means no more dropping Helene debris at the curb. For months, residents have dragged massive, downed trees, flood mud and the toxic remnants of businesses and homes to the street as contractors collecting it. 

“And yet, the program picked up a mere fraction of debris originally reported to be generated by the storm in Buncombe County...”

“Around Buncombe County, including Black Mountain and Asheville, contractors have removed over 1.3 million cubic yards of debris through the program, Cano said. Debris was originally estimated at 10 million cubic yards of right of way debris in the county — meaning removals accounted for a little over 13 percent of original estimates.

“Revised estimates from the USACE for just Buncombe County, not including Asheville or Black Mountain, sit at 950,000 cubic yards of debris, Cano said. USACE has reported 96 percent of that debris as collected.”

 The original 10 million cubic yards of debris estimate would be equivalent to an over 5,680-mile straight line of debris 3 feet high and 3 feet wide — enough to fill over 3,100 olympic size swimming pools. The 1.3 million cubic yards removed is equivalent to roughly 738 miles. 

City of Asheville spokeswoman Kim Miller also noted the error and said an initial report of 3 million cubic yards of debris was an overestimate, the ACT reported. 

Contractors with the City of Asheville are still working to remove right of way debris in some areas, Miller said, but the deadline to place debris on right of ways has passed.

Regional estimates have also been revised. The USACE Helene debris removal portal indicates that Western North Carolina has just over 6 million cubic yards of debris after Helene. The ACT noted that a spokesperson from the USACE did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.

While public right-of-way removals have ended, the last remaining debris “hotspots” were in Swannanoa and an unincorporated area of Black Mountain, near Fairview. By April 3, right-of- way removals for those areas had been completed, Cano said.

City and county spokespeople said the discrepancy was partially due to the preliminary nature of the debris estimates made in October, local property owners hiring private contractors for cleanup efforts, and not all debris being measured in cubic yards, the ACT noted.

Some debris, like cars and mud, are tracked individually or in tons. In the city of Asheville, contractors collected a total 121,490 tons of mud since the storm, a city portal reports.

The ACT added, “Debris removal programs aren’t ending yet, but new removals will require applications due soon. Programs are set to wind down over the coming months.

Property-owners still needing Helene debris removed had to apply for the Private Property Debris Removal program — a free service — by April 15, a “hard deadline” for applications for the program, Buncombe County Solid Waste Director Dane Pedersen said. The program is expected to be completed by June 30.