Lafayette County ice storm debris cleanup enters final stretch, 30 days left

Lafayette County’s ice storm cleanup is entering its last major sweep, with crews having hauled away about 1.15 million cubic yards of debris and roughly 30 days still needed to finish the job across the county. For residents still waiting to get storm limbs and broken trees to the curb, the message is simple: the window is closing.

Looks Great Services, the contractor hired by Lafayette County, the City of Oxford and the University of Mississippi, has been moving through neighborhoods, roadsides and public properties since the January storm turned yards into piles of limbs and snapped timber. The scale is staggering. Countywide, the debris collected so far would fill about 350 Olympic-size swimming pools, or cover roughly 170 football fields a foot deep.

The final pass for city debris collection began April 6, making the current pickup phase the end of the long recovery effort rather than the start of another round. That matters most in Oxford neighborhoods, on unincorporated Lafayette County roads and around properties tied to Ole Miss, where storm damage from the January 23-27 ice event was heaviest. Once crews complete the final sweep, debris left behind will no longer be part of the active curbside collection effort.

The cleanup has been expensive and slow-moving from the start. On March 18, Looks Great told supervisors the Lafayette County debris bill had already topped $20 million, and the board raised the county’s not-to-exceed contract amount from $20 million to $35 million. The company’s daily cost was reported at about $600,000. Oxford leaders have said the city’s total recovery costs could reach about $25 million, and the city approved emergency borrowing up to that amount.

Federal assistance remains a key part of the long-term recovery picture. FEMA issued an emergency declaration on January 24 and a major disaster declaration on February 6 for the winter storm, later making Lafayette County eligible for Public Assistance grants for debris removal and permanent work. Officials have said reimbursement through FEMA and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency could take up to two years, which is why Debris Tech has been monitoring the work to document loads and disposal for federal compliance.

The storm’s first weeks showed how quickly the total grew. In early February, Looks Great had already collected about 99,000 cubic yards of debris in Lafayette County and removed more than 4,000 hazardous limbs and trees there. By February 16, Oxford crews had cleared about 170,200 cubic yards, plus another 3,400 cubic yards from tree trimming and removal. Officials have said a cleanup of this size usually takes three to five passes and 60 to 90 days or longer. In Lafayette County, it has taken far longer, and the final trucks now signal the end of the county’s biggest debris removal push.