Tree Limb Removal Could Take Months

The Thanksgiving day ice storm is now just a memory, unless you have a big pile of tree branches still sitting in your front yard.

Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City crews now say it could take into next year to get them all picked up. The city is estimating about 13,000 tons of limbs will need to be picked up and because of that large volume they weren’t able to get started as soon as they had hoped.

The city hopes to have a contractor in place by the end of the week and start pick up on Monday. On Wednesday, city crews toured northwest Oklahoma City with FEMA.

“We will submit this to FEMA and we’ll see if we are able to get reimbursed for the cost of collecting all this debris,” Oklahoma City spokeswoman Kristy Yager said.

It will be expensive and time consuming. Yager said it could take 30 days to cover the entire city. Then, they'll make another pass that could take until early February. So the city is asking for patience.

The limbs should be cut into segments no longer than 12 feet. 

It’s important to stack the debris away from obstructions like poles, mailboxes, vehicles, trees, power lines, water meters and gas meters. Residents scheduled for bulk waste collection are required to keep tree debris separate. The piles will be collected by separate crews.

If you don't want to wait for someone to come to you you can haul those limbs off yourself.  You can drop them off at a special free landfill from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 12.

This option is for residential customers only who receive Oklahoma City trash collection services. Bring a copy of a current City of Oklahoma City utility bill and a driver’s license or other form of ID to prove Oklahoma City residency.

Participating landfills are:

• East Oak Landfill – 3201 Mosley Road (On the south side of NE 36 east of Sooner Road)

• Oklahoma City Landfill – 7001 S Bryant Ave.

• Oklahoma Landfill – 7600 SW 15

• Northeast Landfill – 2601 N Midwest Boulevard in Spencer

Each residential household may drop off one load using one passenger vehicle or truck up to 1-ton and one trailer up to 16 feet long.

The special Free Landfill Day is not available to businesses or commercial waste haulers, including contracted debris removal crews.

For more information about the free landfill day, call utility customer service at 297-2833.

Edmond

In Edmond, contractors began work to pick up limbs at the west city limits on Monday working to the east. 

Based upon the large amount of damage from the storm, they are estimating the job could take two plus months to complete. 

For residents that want to remove the debris sooner, the city has opened a free drop off site on Monday. 

All of the information can be found at these links:

Debris Pickup

Debris Dropoff.

Yukon

The City of Yukon has been doing curbside pickup of tree debris since Dec. 1. The first sweep of the city is expected to last another two weeks, then they will do another sweep across the city that will approximately last three weeks.

Here are 5 tips for residents regarding storm debris.