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

Article III of Chapter 12 defines debris as displaced, broken or discarded building or construction materials, garbage, vegetative matter, spoiled household goods, dead fish, or marine flotsam and jetsam (Sec. 12-41). The county will remove debris from private streets, roads and roadways when the Board of County Commissioners determines it poses an immediate threat to health, safety and welfare, applying any of fourteen listed standards, including whether the debris would significantly hinder emergency vehicles, is reasonably likely to cause illness, blocks garbage collection, threatens to leach contaminants into soil or groundwater, could wash into surrounding waters, or is likely to produce mold if left in place (Sec.

12-42(a)). Those criteria can be waived by the Federal Coordinating Officer of FEMA where the situation is severe enough (Sec. 12-42(b)). Where reasonably possible, before clearing private property the county administrator or a designee is required to contact the property owner and secure an indemnification agreement holding the county, its contractors, employees and other government agencies harmless (Sec. 12-42(c)). Separately, and regardless of those criteria, nothing in the ordinance stops the county from making a first response within the first seventy-two hours after a disaster declaration to clear debris from all roadways, public and private, when necessary for law enforcement, fire and emergency medical vehicles to move (Sec.

12-42(d)). Beyond private roadways, the county is not otherwise obligated to remove debris from private property unless the severity or scale of the debris is so significant, after consultation with FEMA, that the Board of County Commissioners finds it a significant and immediate threat to the public and in the county's overriding interest to remove it (Sec. 12-42(e)).