By The Junk Lord · Updated
1. Look up and around before you touch anything
Don't start with the chainsaw. When the National Weather Service wrote up the EF-2 tornado that hit near Wrightsville on Aug. 20, 2026, the damage list included roofs torn off classrooms at Eastern York High School and broken windows and siding on homes along Winding Way. Storms like that leave hazards you can't see from the back porch.[1]
Treat every downed wire as live. Keep yourself, the kids and the dog well away from it, and call the electric utility. Don't pull on a limb that's touching a line, and don't stand under a tree with branches still hanging loose in the canopy.
2. Take pictures before you clean
Once it's safe to walk the property, photograph everything before a single branch moves. Wide shots that show the whole yard, then close-ups of the roof, siding, fence, shed, cars and anything a limb landed on.
Keep receipts for anything you spend on the cleanup, and read your own policy or call your agent about what it covers. Every policy is different, and once the debris is gone, the photos are the record of what happened.
3. Find out what your town will clear
For a big event, York County's plan names the municipalities as the primary agency for disaster debris, with the county solid waste authority, county emergency management, PEMA, DEP, EPA and FEMA in support. So the first call is your borough or township office, not the county.[2]
Some towns spell out storm help ahead of time. Hanover picks up fallen brush after heavy storms at no charge if it's stacked, not bundled, and Public Works is notified within five days of the storm. Otherwise, limbs and brush there are a special pickup you schedule and pay for ahead of time.[3]
If a storm dumped limbs and junk in a creek on your land, DEP says clearing manmade and woody debris out of streams, off banks and out of riparian areas doesn't need DEP notification or a permit, and heavy equipment is fine as long as it stays on the bank. Pulling out gravel bars with equipment or removing a failing bridge likely does need notification.[4]
4. Sort the mess into piles
Storm debris is really three kinds of waste wearing one disguise, and each goes somewhere different. Sorting now saves you from loading the same mess twice, and it tells you quickly whether a curb pickup or a drop-off can handle any of it.
- Wood and leaves. Keep this pile clean. The county's yard waste area turns limbs up to 6 feet long into mulch, and anything that shows up tangled with trash gets diverted to the waste bunker.[5][6]
- Building pieces. The county drop-off limits shingles to one small trailer or pickup per visit, wants siding cut to 6 feet or less, and turns metal siding away entirely.[7]
- Everything else. Waterlogged patio cushions, a crushed grill, a trampoline frame folded in half. That's ordinary junk, and it goes with the bulky stuff.
5. Know what needs an arborist
A tree that's cracked but still standing, leaning toward the house, or holding a broken limb up high is a job for a certified arborist. Same for trimming and stump grinding. We don't climb, and we don't fell standing trees.
Once the arborist has it on the ground, or the storm already put it there, it's ours to haul.
6. Then call for the haul-away
With the photos taken and the town's options sorted out, what's left is usually more than a curb pickup will handle. We clear downed limbs and already-cut logs, wrecked fence sections, torn siding and shingles, and the patio furniture that ended up in the neighbor's yard. Two of us load it, haul it and sweep the area when we're done.
Text a few photos of the yard to William at (717) 654-6138 and he'll give you a price before any work starts.