Citrus County, FL Hurricane Preparedness: Storm Debris (2026)

Citrus County Code § 30-41, adopted by Ord. No. 2024-A20 on September 24, 2024, sets the county's process for clearing storm debris from private residential communities, meaning private streets not owned by a government. The section makes clear that debris removal from private communities is normally the community's own responsibility, but authorizes the Board of County Commissioners to remove it when debris on a private street creates an immediate threat, judged against 14 listed standards, including hindering rescue vehicles, posing disease risk, blocking utility restoration, threatening property damage, blocking garbage collection, or leaching contaminants into the aquifer.

Such removal is declared not to be a trespass. Section 30-43 requires the property owner, homeowners' or condominium association, or governing board to indemnify and hold harmless federal, state and local government before the county will remove debris from private streets or commercial property. Section 30-46 limits the county's obligation on private property itself to streets and roadways needed for access, unless the board finds the debris so severe or widespread that removing it elsewhere is in the overriding public interest, and it shifts cleanup costs back to any owner who misplaces debris or dumps non-disaster debris on county rights-of-way, giving 24 hours to remove it before the county bills for removal.

Section 30-47 requires gated communities to leave entrance gates open and secured during an emergency to allow debris and emergency vehicle access, and § 30-48 makes adjacent property owners, not the county, responsible for hazardous trees or limbs overhanging a private road unless county crews face an immediate safety threat.