The storm and the resulting demolition and reconstruction efforts generated a staggering 47 million cubic yards of debris. That's 1.27 billion cubic feet. A first it was mainly trees and vegetation, later it was refrigerators, furniture, sheetrock, carpets and other construction debris.

A truck can haul away about 10 cubic yards so we are talking about nearly 5 million truckloads. Stacked a hundred feet high this debris would fill a hundred yard wide swath nearly 8 miles long. It is enough debris to fill the Industrial Canal from the river to the lake. It is a major headache for the landfills.