More than two weeks after the July 5 storms, Mahoning County and local communities were still staring up a mountain. Now, a regional cleanup effort is making a big difference and even running ahead of schedule.

Mahoning County EMA Director Conner O’Halloran said more than 12 agencies and 100 people have been working in teams across much of the affected area to clear large piles of debris that were overwhelming individual townships.

“We had an increasing amount of debris collecting on the right of way, it was getting dry, just piling up. Townships were offering to chip it, but they were overwhelmed. They just couldn’t keep up,” O’Halloran said. “So we called everyone in and said let’s do this in a one-time blitz, hit it with as many people and vehicles as we can. We unfolded a map and drew up zones. It’s a giant mutual aid effort.”

O’Halloran said heavy equipment, dump trucks and chainsaw crews comprise the nine teams that are working across 11 zones. They gathered at Mr. Anthony’s banquet center parking lot on Sunday and have been working systematically through the county since then.

O’Halloran gave Mahoning County commissioners a progress report at Thursday morning’s regular meeting.

“Boardman Township is not 100% complete. Our southern approach with Boardman Township has been done, but the areas by the golf course, which is currently being managed by ODOT, is still actively being worked on. So the areas between Shields (Road), right around the hike and bike trail, those neighborhoods that extend off of that are being worked on (Thursday and Friday),” he said.

“At the end of the operational period (Wednesday), we’ve had 476 dump-truck loads delivered to our dump site, where it’s all being shredded and turned into mulch.”

O’Halloran said more than a dozen agencies participated, including ODOT, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio State Highway Patrol, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, township road and police departments in Austintown, Boardman and Canfield, the 911 centers, along with EMA and the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office. He told commissioners the mutual aid effort has seen local crews work on state roads and state crews work on local roads. Real-time communication has allowed resources to be shifted immediately wherever they were needed.

“The level of collaboration and cooperation is second to none, and I don’t think this is something we’ve ever done to this extent with Mahoning County. So it’s a great effort, it shows how our community can really pull together, get this debris taken care of, and get back to everyday life,” he said. “Just seeing everyone come together and communicate and address problems in real time. ODOT just earlier needed a chainsaw crew, they put it out over the radio, and then we got a chainsaw crew. We needed a police officer for traffic control, we got a police officer. So we’re not paying attention to jurisdictional boundaries on this operation. That’s the main point and motivator behind the declaration of emergencies.”

O’Halloran also thanked Meijer and the American Red Cross, as well as Mr. Anthony’s, for their support of the mission.

He said Thursday’s focus, thanks to efficient work putting them ahead of schedule, would be on cleaning up debris on the East Hike and Bike Trail between U.S. Route 224 and Shields Road, so that path at least can be reopened.

Commissioner Geno DiFabio said the effort is nothing short of impressive, given that Mahoning County does not usually deal with storms of this scale.

“We don’t live in Florida. We don’t deal with hurricanes three times a year. And I think that team and all our partners that cooperated with us have done a hell of a job.

And I’m proud I am,” he said. “And there’s other things that I know that we can work on together with the townships, the county, different problems that we can solve in working this way … And this collaboration is really helping the residents who are affected by this. Insurance doesn’t cover it.

But DiFabio and O’Halloran also asked that residents understand the scope of the effort and what crews are able to do. The objective, they said, is to move as efficiently as possible to clean up all the large debris.

Matters like raking leaves after big limbs are removed from the right-of-way are still left to homeowners.

“We’re trying to provide whatever we can. And I just hope those people understand that we’re doing all we can with all the resources we could gather,” DiFabio said.

“I want to stress this is a very complex effort, and we’re making sure we didn’t miss any roads, so I just ask residents to please give us some leniency while we work through everything,” O’Halloran added.