It’s been almost four weeks since post-tropical storm Arthur cut a path through the Maritimes, particularly through southern New Brunswick.
Some neighbourhoods are only starting to see the arrival of cleanup crews, and many residents say the job still looks a long way off.
“This is spring cleanup times a thousand for us,” says one Fredericton resident.
In Saint John, almost 700 truckloads of debris have been removed from residential streets.
The landfill says the volume of material coming in is slowing down.
“Most of the brush coming in,” says Fundy Solid Waste Commission General Manager Marc MacLeod. “If its small brush, we send it to compost, but the majority of brush, especially the material that comes off trailers is buried.”
Even when the brush is cleaned up, there is other work that has temporarily been put on hold,
“Every week that we’re out with our crews, we’re finding another 20 or 30 trees that are structurally unsound,” explains MacLeod. “We’re marking them for removal.”
As the cleanup bills continue to mount, it’s still unclear how much will be reimbursed by the federal and provincial governments through disaster assistance programs.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron.
