Metairie, La. -
Jefferson Parish council members and the parish president disagree about how debris clean up should be handled. Coming up on two weeks after Hurricane Isaac, many residents complain the pick-up process is too slow as debris still lines streets in the parish.
"There's a number of questions that the public has reached out to us, that we're trying to get answers on," said Councilman Chris Roberts.
"Just wondering, where they at," said Metairie homeowner Wayne Adams.
Frustrations are mounting, nearly two weeks after Hurricane Isaac, and some still are wondering when the debris will be picked up.
"As soon as the storm was over, as far as the high winds and all, then everybody got out and started cleaning up the yard and cleaning up the neighborhood. That's what's kind of disgusting about no pick-up," said Adams.
Landry lives on Helios Street in Metairie. Piles of branches and leaves are in front of almost every home on his street.
"At first there was the garbage, they were kind of slow with picking up the garbage, then we finally got that back, but there's hasn't been anybody to come down here to do anything with the debris," said Adams.
Now, parish council members say there should be a better understanding on what the pick-up process is.
"One of the problems is that you have several sub-contractors that are working, so how they're handling the debris clean-up is a little bit different from each one. And we're hearing in some cases small things are being left behind, which we want to make sure doesn't end up in our drainage system," said Roberts.
The Parish Council has called a special meeting Thursday to try and get on the same page with the parish administration and the sub-contractors responsible for the clean-up.
"The biggest reason for the emergency meeting is a lot of misinformation out there about what the debris people are doing, how they want stuff set up, when it's going to be picked up. So we figure the best thing to do is just have a meeting," said Councilman Elton Lagasse.
Parish President John Young says they're ahead of schedule, and crews have picked up several tons of debris across the parish. But he agrees there's still a lot of work to be done.
"We've already collected 143,000 cubic yards of loose debris. To give you a perspective, same time after Gustav, we only picked up 500 cubic yards of debris. So we're way ahead of schedule," said Young.
As of Monday, Young says there are 55 trucks working on the east bank and 30 trucks on the west bank. He says his office is monitoring the pick-up process on an hourly basis.
Recycling services were suspended so the parish can focus on storm debris pick-up. Those trucks are being used to pick up all bagged debris.
