Seminole County, FL Hurricane Preparedness: Storm Debris (2026)
Key Facts
- Governing part
- Chapter 235, Part 6
- First-response window
- 70 hours post-declaration
- County removal criteria
- 14 listed conditions
- Removal map
- County Maintained Roads Map
- Owner must
- indemnify County before removal
- Normal responsibility
- property owner clears own debris
Summary
After a declared disaster, Seminole County can clear debris from private roads and private property only when it poses an immediate threat to health, safety or welfare, and the County commits to a first-response sweep of both public and private roads for emergency vehicle access within 70 hours of the declaration.
The intent and purpose of this Part is to establish a process by which the County may evaluate and, if necessary, remove Debris from along privately owned streets, roads, roadways, and other private property in the event of an immediate threat to life, public health, and safety after a significant disaster.... The County shall remove Debris from Private Roadways when such Debris is determined to pose an immediate threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the community.... Nothing in this Part precludes a first response by the County to clear and push Debris from all roadways (both public and private), including Access Properties necessary for the movement of emergency vehicles including police, fire, and ambulance within the first seventy (70) hours after a disaster declaration.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 23 Update 1 | Land Development Code: Supplement 2).
Full Breakdown
5 of the County Code. 91 states the County's primary post-disaster mission is protecting life, restoring government services, and clearing public streets first; only after that mission is accomplished does the County consider removing debris from private streets and other private property, work it normally treats as the property owner's own responsibility. 93 lets the County Manager order debris removed from Private Roadways identified on the County's Maintained Roads Map whenever any one of fourteen listed conditions is met, including that debris is hindering emergency vehicles, poses a disease risk, blocks restoration of power, water, sewer, or phone service, threatens to leach contaminants into the soil or aquifer, could produce mold, or is too voluminous to clear without county equipment.
93 criteria. 97 limits county-initiated cleanup on private property that is not one of the mapped Private Roadways to cases where the debris is so severe or widespread that the County Manager finds it an immediate threat to health, safety, and welfare and in the County's overriding public interest to remove it. 95 requires the private property owner to indemnify and hold harmless the federal, state, and local government and its employees, officers, and agents.
Violations & Fines
This Part does not set a fine for property owners; instead, Section 235.94 lets FEMA waive the Section 235.93 threat-criteria requirement for federal reimbursement purposes depending on the severity of the storm, and Section 235.95 makes accepting county-performed debris removal conditional on the property owner indemnifying the County against liability arising from the work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the County remove storm debris from my private street?
How fast will the County clear roads after a hurricane?
Do I have to sign anything before the County clears my property?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Seminole County
Florida rules heatmap·Compare Seminole County to another location·View the Florida hurricane preparedness overview
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