New Orleans garbage crews deploy as residents blame city and contractor for delays | Hurricane center

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When Molly Dees heard the rumble on Congress Street, she stepped out onto her porch to watch.

It had been about three weeks since the garbage in his neighborhood of Saint-Claude had been collected. An overwhelming smell of rotten garbage wafted from the bags spilled along the pavement. The bags were next to garbage cans that had not been emptied since before Hurricane Ida.

Real garbage trucks were still nowhere to be found, but Dees took some joy at the sight of a team of city workers as they made their way to his house, grabbing loose bags along the way.

Yes! Thank you so much! she cried as the crew passed.

Dees was among residents who saw at least some of his trash hauled on Friday by city workers brought in to help Metro Service Group, the trash hauler whose inadequate efforts before and after the storm had left rotting mounds across the city. . The plan was announced by Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Thursday evening, after the city was unable to find another contractor to help clean up after the storm.

The team of about half a dozen from the Department of Public Works slowly walked up the street. It was a strange procession with a dump truck in the lead, followed by a front loader, a pickup truck and an SUV from the New Orleans Police Department. As they crawled down the street, the workers fanned out, grabbing foul trash from the sidewalks. They dropped him into the loader’s quick-fill shovel, which was then lifted and dumped into the truck in front of him.

New Orleans Publics Works employee Clyde Wilson leads the garbage dump on Congress Street in New Orleans on Friday, September 17, 2021, during the first day of Operation Mardi Gras, a scale-up effort of the city to dispose of household garbage from neighborhoods in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

David Grunfeld

Dubbed Operation Mardi Gras to conjure up images of the army of workers following the Carnival parades, the cleanup had neither the massive manpower nor the pleasant afterglow of a night of celebration.

If we had all the trucks like at Mardi Gras, it wouldn’t take long, said James Montgomery, one of the team workers.

City officials have promised that 10 teams of workers from the city and other government agencies will pass through areas of the city where waste is the responsibility of Metro Service. At a press conference Thursday, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said they would not stop until all the loose bags littering the sidewalks were picked up.

The even more smelly contents of the trash cans, in most cases filled with food that deteriorated during the blackouts that followed Ida, were left for whatever the trash hauler could possibly pass through.

As city workers in New Orleans took to the streets on Friday morning in the latest attempt to stem the spiraling health crisis, city council members …

Still, the workers did their best to minimize what they left behind, often removing enough bags from the cans to at least allow their lids to be closed to help quell the stench. At the end of each house, workers grabbed shovels and brooms to pick up stray debris.

Montgomery typically works on town maintenance, streetlight and sign repair, and other miscellaneous jobs. Despite the inconvenience of his task on Friday, he took up his duties in a good mood.

You have to know the meaning of the interview: it can be anything, Montgomery said.

New Orleans Publics Works employee James Montgomery clears trash on Congress Street in New Orleans on Friday, September 17, 2021, during day one of Operation Mardi Gras, a city-wide effort to eliminate household garbage from neighborhoods in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

David Grunfeld

In the early afternoon, deputy general manager of infrastructure, Ramsey Green, showed up to oversee the efforts, taking a bag or two with the workers. He said it was the fourth crew he had visited since this morning.

The Congress team had been working since the start of the day, although equipment issues prevented them from going out as early as they expected and had walked down Desire Street and Gallier Street around noon. The garbage they dumped had filled three 18 cubic yard dump trucks by that time.

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New Orleans Publics Works employee Clyde Wilson gives the go-ahead after garbage was dumped into a truck on Congress Street in New Orleans on Friday, September 17, 2021, during the first day of operation Mardi Gras, a city-wide effort to remove household garbage from neighborhoods in the wake of Hurricane Ida. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

David Grunfeld

A small two-man crew worked the streets near Elysian Fields in St. Roch, throwing garbage bags into a flatbed trailer pulled by a pickup truck, with another truck following to oversee.

Those who worked on this team usually cut the grass for the city, but were not disturbed by their new assignment, with one worker noting that someone had to do it.

Yet they knew there were many streets waiting for them.

We’ve barely scratched the surface, said the worker.

Cantrell insisted on Wednesday that the teams would be accompanied by NOPD officers to prevent any abuse against the workers. But like Dees, most of the residents who watched the trucks go by were grateful to the workers enlisted in this disgusting task.

Feelings for the Cantrell administration and for Metro were decidedly less sympathetic.

Cordell Ford, standing across the street, said the city should have been prepared before the storm to deal with its aftermath, including cleaning up the garbage.

It’s just disgusting that there is nothing we can do, Ford said.

Metro has struggled with collections for months in the neighborhoods of the city it covers, including the Lakeside, Gentilly, New Orleans East, and the neighborhoods downstream of the French Quarter. After a work stoppage from the hoppers in search of higher wages and more protective gear at the start of the pandemic, which prompted the company to use inmates to haul trash, it recently struggled to hire enough drivers.

When the hoppers went on strike a year ago, they could have met their needs, Ann Haley said as she walked home. This is what happened because they didn’t.

Aaron Louisiana Grant said it started out as a bitter joke. After two weeks without a garbage collection at his home in Marigny, Grant said he had had enough.

Even after enlisting help from IV Waste, the waste company owned by Sidney Torres, Metro was unable to pick up huge swathes of its territory in the weeks after Ida. Richards Disposal, which covers most of the rest of the city, also struggled with regular pickups, but at least managed to use many of its routes.

Cantrell administration officials waited more than a week to solicit bids for emergency garbage collection after the storm. It took another week before they declared that the only company looking to help Metro was not up to the task because it too was short of drivers. Hence the idea of ​​bringing workers from the city.

10 teams of trucks, front loaders, municipal workers start on Friday

Effort is not a perfect solution: Clouds of big black flies continued to buzz along the street and the air still smelled of rot after the trucks passed.

But at least, Dees said, they got some of it out of here.

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