LAURENS COUNTY, Ga. — Many counties damaged by Hurricane Helene are hoping that Federal Emergency Management funds can help them recover.
It's not that simple, though. Those funds come with rules and regulations, including rules on what to do with tree debris. Laurens County Commissioner Trae Kemp said cleaning up the county from tree debris is going to really cost them.
"The bids that we're getting or the estimates that we're seeing are basically in the $10 million, $15 million, $20 million mark to clean up debris," Kemp said.
That's because they don't have the resources to clear the debris themselves.
"We couldn't maintain the roadways and clean up the debris at the same time. We're just not staffed for that. This is a massive event," Kemp said.
He said so far, county employees have made a lot of progress on cleaning up the roads.
"For the most part everything is cleared out, and we've started to blade roads again and we've started to conduct routine maintenance again," Kemp said.
But county officials are still asking people to be mindful about how they dispose their debris from their property.
"If you're gonna use a private contractor, please ask them to go to the landfill and drop that off. If you're doing it yourself or you're having a neighbor do it for you or a child or whatever for free, they can put it on the right-of-way," Kemp said.
That's not a county rule that came from Laurens County - that rule came from FEMA.
"You let private contractors drop off debris on the right of way, and all of a sudden they say, 'Well, you're invalidated and we're not gonna reimburse you.' And then we're just stuck with the bill," Kemp said.
He said the county just can't afford to foot the bill - so they're banking on FEMA reimbursing them - but only if people follow those FEMA rules.
"This is not something that we could do without FEMA. And so we're following FEMA guidelines so we can get FEMA reimbursement to clean up Laurens County," Kemp said.
Keith Johnson lives in Dublin and said winds were spiraling trees on his property during Helene. He wishes the county didn't have to follow that tree rule, and said it may cause companies to charge more.
"I think it'd be safer. And, and more cost effective. Because that, that would also eliminate the scalping as far as that goes," Johnson said.
But Kemp said the county just can't take that risk, or risk having to double or triple the county's tax rate to afford the tree debris removal.
"If there was any possible way for us to allow them to do whatever they wanted to do to get the debris off their yard and into the right-of-way, I'm sure the county wouldn't have any problem with that. The problem comes in when FEMA says well you didn't follow our guidelines; we're not gonna give you reimbursement. And that's a really big problem," Kemp said.
According to the county's emergency management agency, private contractors who place debris in the right-of-way will be prosecuted.
Instead, they're encouraged to take the debris to the county's landfill at 1645 Old Hawkinsville Road.
Kemp said they still don't have a timeline for when debris will be picked up, because they're waiting to find out if the state will help cover the costs before they put down their own funds first.