LAKELAND, Fla — Polk County was hit hard by Hurricane Ian, and now, residents are bracing for Tropical Storm Nicole. On Wednesday, the county opened seven sandbag sites to help people guard their homes and businesses against flood waters.
"We live in the first floor," Michael Santiago of Lakeland said. "My mother is 88 years old."
Santiago was one of the handfuls of drivers to pick up sandbags in Lakeland. For homeowners in low-lying areas, any heavy rain event raises concern.
"[Gotta] make sure we don't flood inside the garage and our front door," Hector Barton of Kathleen said.
Barton shared how Hurricane Ian still has his family on high alert, prompting him to get sandbags while he could.
"Make sure it doesn't happen in this storm too," Barton said. "Ian was pretty bad. So just be prepared."
The crews filling and distributing sandbags are typically picking up storm debris. They've been working nonstop since Hurricane Ian. Once the storm clears and it's safe to do so, they'll resume those operations.
Just over half of the storm debris left behind by Hurricane Ian has been collected in Polk County.
"We're almost at work just past 750,000 cubic yards of debris that's been collected in 36 days," Ryan Taylor, the deputy county manager over infrastructure said. "So we're doing very well our debris hauler is, is working at twice the speed of what they were during Hurricane Irma. And we still expect we should have this completed in about three months."
Polk County sandbags sites were only open on Wednesday.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.