BATON ROUGE - Bright and early Wednesday (March 17) morning, crews are outside working before sunrise, cleaning up debris in Baton Rouge's Villa Del Rey neighborhood.

The crews come from the company that serves as East Baton Rouge Parish's trash/recycling collection service, Republic Services in addition to personnel from an emergency debris removal organization called DRC.

The two agencies have teamed up to work as swiftly as possible to remove stray limbs, leaves, and other storm-related debris in the area. 

The initiative is much-needed as a severe winter storm impacted Baton Rouge and surrounding areas from February 15 –18, leaving debris scattered across many of the city's streets and neighborhoods.

The clean up process is expected to last six weeks and as of Wednesday, the community is in the fourth week of that process with roughly 65 percent of the debris removal accomplished.

City-Parish officials expect DRC to collect roughly 80,000 cubic yards, which is about 50% more than what was collected following Hurricane Delta. In total, DRC has collected 964 loads and 47,445 cubic yards to date.

A clean up schedule is listed below:

Week 1 

February 22nd- DRC collected in the Sherwood Area between I-12, Airline, Sherwood Forest and Florida.

Week 2

March 1st - DRC collected in the area off Staring Lane/Highland, Kenilworth, Walden, Magnolia Woods.

Week 3

Throughout the week of March 8, DRC completed servicing Broadmoor & Sherwood Forrest areas collecting roughly 419 loads and 20,137 cubic yards. DRC had 5 trucks working areas off Staring Lane/Highland, Kenilworth, Walden, Magnolia Woods and up to 5 trucks collecting in portions of Southdowns & Pollard Estates. They collected roughly 288 loads and 11,76 cubic yards. DRC moved 3 trucks collecting in– Villa Del Rey and Monticello and they have picked up about 55 loads for 5,960 cubic yards.

Week 4 (Current Week)

During the week of March 15 DRC has 2 trucks in portions of Southdowns, & Pollard Estates areas finishing up there.

DRC also has 5 trucks working Off Staring Lane/Highland, Kenilworth, Walden, Magnolia Woods and they expect to be in the area for the next 7 to 8 days to complete servicing.

DRC is expecting to finish up in Villa Del Rey and Monticello this week.

Debris removal crews have moved one truck into Stevendale and expect to finish up this area later this week. DRC will move three trucks into Tara, Bocage, Westminster area.

Week 5 & 6

On March 22nd & 29th DRC will be deployed wherever it is needed. City-Parish officials expect operations to be completed before Good Friday.