AUSTIN (KXAN) — “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Nick Strimbu, who’s lived in Austin for nearly a decade.

On Thursday, he made his third pass over his yard, after a tree branch fell through his roof and into his kitchen.

“Then a few more branches fell had to clean all up again, finally pulled it out of our roof and patched it,” he said.

Strimbu stayed at a relative’s house Wednesday night and came home to more work.

“Came back this morning. It’s pretty much devastation. It’s bad,” he said.

Austin Resource Recovery *will* pick up customers’ debris if they prepare it and leave it on their curb, then call 3-1-1.

You can put small branches and yard trimmings in your green composting bin, lawn and leaf bags, or a reusable container. You can stack small branches, no longer than five feet and no thicker than three inches, that don’t fit into your bin into bundles under 30 pounds. ARR said there won’t be item number limits for storm debris collection.

ARR said their brush drop off location will also reopen Friday.

Austin and Travis County neighbors can bring their large branches and limbs to the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant.

Neighbors that have physical disabilities or need financial help cleaning up their debris can ask Austin Disaster Relief Network via this form.

Just down Strimbu’s street in the Anderson Mill area: More fallen limbs and even whole trees completely blocking roads.

It’s a scene in many neighborhoods, causing drivers to swerve or come to a complete stop and turn around.

That’s when you call 3-1-1 as well, and Austin Public Works comes in.

“We prioritize those based first and foremost on emergency status, making sure that we’re getting out there… to the obstructions that are going to cause the greatest potential harm,” said Reiner Hershaw, who manages infrastructure operations for Public Works.

He said potential harm means a tree that may be tangled in electrical lines or is blocking the path for emergency services.

Hershaw said they’ve got more than 100 staff responding to debris calls Thursday — both in the field and other members in the city’s emergency operations center.

He said so far, they’ve already gotten more than 800 calls for service– much more than they did for even the February 2021 winter storm.

“An extremely high number for us, compared to a typical winter weather event,” Hershaw said.

He said that number could include overlapping requests but is probably higher in reality, with some folks not yet calling debris in their area.

As of Thursday around noon, he said crews have gotten to more than 120 of those requests, but they’re still rolling in.

“We are continuing to receive calls on a day-by-day, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour basis,” Hershaw said.

He added it could take a week to get all roads cleared.

As for his property, Strimbu said he’s breaking through the ice on his own.

“Put the boots back on and get back to it. I mean, what else you can do?” he said.