Claremore Continues Storm Debris Cleanup

Folks in Claremore are still dealing with a huge amount of debris left behind from May's tornado.

The cleanup job is proving to be a massive undertaking, but the city is chipping away as fast as it can to make headway. The city manager says there are still several weeks of work to go.

The streets of Claremore are still lined with heaps of debris, painstakingly piled up by tornado survivors. Now it's the city's job to clear them away.

"We had over 850 houses and structures we think approximately damaged, so some of them are worse than others," said Claremore City manager John Feary.

He says the contractors they hired to pick up the debris are on their first of 3 passes. They have to measure each cubic yard of green waste so they can get as much FEMA funding as possible.

"It's a very onerous and arduous process that the federal government makes you go through, but we have to do it the right way to make sure that we recover the absolute maximum of our taxpayer dollars," said Feary.

This job has cost the city $6 million so far, an amount that's expected to at least double in the coming weeks.

But some people are doing it for free.

"Just cleaning up, helping the city, they don't know it, but I am,” said Crystal Gillespie.

Nobody asked her, but Gillespie helps one truckload at a time.

“When I see people picking up stuff and it looks like they need a hand, I just stop and help them out; I don't have anything else to do,” said Gillespie.

The city says their contractors are only picking up debris on the side of the road, but folks can apply for private property removal free of charge if they can't get it there by clicking here.

“In extreme conditions that will never have the means or the ability to get it up to the road or if we need to get on the private property,” said Feary.

The city says when playing debris out on the side of the road, it must be separated by green waste and other debris like shingles and construction material.