PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — A week after Hurricane Debby, many are still dealing with the impacts, including a 10 Tampa Bay viewer who reached out for help.
79-year-old Terry Gould says his Pinellas Park backyard has been filled with tree limbs and brush, but it wasn't the storm per se that put them there.
“When they came in to fix it, they said, well, we've got to trim off the trees in the back, I said okay sure,” Gould said.
A couple days after the storm, while working to get power back on line, contractors first had to clear tree limbs from Gould and his neighbors homes, he thought they would also cleanup what they took down, but that wasn't the case.
The pounds of limbs and brush was left in his backyard, some even crushing a ginger plant that holds a lot of sentimental value, planted by his late wife Barbara.
“I didn’t think it was that bad until I walked over here and I saw that and said oh wow, it’s a good thing she’s not here,” Gould described.
At 79, with a bad back, he says there's no way he could clean it up himself.
“20 years ago, I would have had that done by now, but you get old and you know you're not as good as you used to be,” Gould said.
On a fixed income, he’s not able to pay for someone to come bag it all up.
“Can't be putting down $200-$300 on something like this. I haven't got it. I live on $1,500 a month that's it. And the way prices are nowadays, good luck,” he said.
We reached out to Duke Energy and Tuesday night they told us that based on the circumstances, they are working with Terry and will have a crew come out to resolve his problem.
But, don’t expect that at your home, their policy online is clear that disposal of any wood or debris after post-weather work like this is the responsibility of the property owner.
When an “act of God” (such as lightning, ice storms, high winds, hurricanes, tornadoes) or other natural events cause trees or other vegetation to fall across power lines and damage facilities, we cut the trees and brush so poles and lines can be replaced and re-energized. Disposal of any wood, limbs or debris resulting from this type of emergency operation is the responsibility of the property owner," reads their website.
Throughout the year, power companies trim trees around powerlines as a preventative measure to cut down on outages when we get storms, but there are limits to what falls under their responsibility.
If you have Duke, for example, you are responsible for trimming the trees that interfere with your service line, the line that runs from the pole to your home's meter.
You can either call them to turn off the power to that line so you can trim it yourself or you can ask to have a representative evaluate it. But, there's no guarantee they will work on it.