Alachua County Public Works resumes normal operations following Hurricane Idalia recovery

Press release from Alachua County

ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – The Alachua County Public Works Department announces that normal operations will resume on Monday, September 25, 2023, following recovery efforts from Hurricane Idalia. On Wednesday morning, August 30, 2023, Idalia made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane in the Big Bend region of north Florida, approximately 60 miles west of Alachua County.

As part of the Department’s hurricane activation plan, the Road and Bridge Division strategically deployed five crews at local schools around the County so crews could respond quickly to downed trees. The first shift worked Tuesday night as the storm approached the area and into Wednesday morning to keep roadways passable. The second shift came in at 11 a.m. Wednesday morning and worked until 11 p.m. that night to ensure roadways remained open. The northwestern parts of the County appeared to have been the hardest hit by the storm, based on the number of trees that fell on County roads.

The day after the storm, the Road and Bridge Division was reorganized and split into two strike teams to respond to the storm’s aftermath. One team focused on picking up the vegetative debris within the County’s right of way, and the other focused on replenishing the County’s sandbag reserves. Both teams completed their task in just under 30 days. More than 150 dump truck loads of vegetative debris were removed from the right of way, and 10,000 sandbags have been filled and are ready for the next storm.

Residents should not place yard waste in the County’s right of way unless it meets the curbside pickup guidelines.

  • Does this mean that Road and Bridge is going to address the six foot high grass bordering CR-231?

  • We experienced fallen tree and branch damage in the City of Gainesville but no crews came by to remove it. I called Gainesville solid waste division and they somehow determined there was insufficient damage to justify recovery crews. I finally paid an arborist to remove a fallen tree. Tax dollars at work.

    • Was the damage across the street, in the public right-of-way, or on your property? If it is on your property, it is your responsibility.

  • >