If you take a drive around the Twin Cities, you will find a lot of fallen trees and gaping holes in the ground right next to them. You will also find trees overturned on homes, homes with damage to their roofs, siding, and other exterior elements. Basically, there is damage everywhere because of a June storm that passed through that perfectly defined meaning of a violent storm.
But why is the cleanup taking so long?
The cleanup is taking so long because there were around 3,000 trees in Minneapolis and 1,000 in St. Paul that were lost. This shows that the storm damage is obviously very extensive.
On St. Paul’s west side, neighbors gathered together to watch crews deal with the only damage left on their block – a hanging limb. A crew of four men operated a clam loader, an aerial truck, and another truck to haul the large limb away.
Although a lot of trees were overturned, there are others with hanging limbs that could be dangerous for anyone walking under a tree and not knowing that there is a limb hanging over top of them. Making sure that all of the tree damage is taken care of has had St. Paul crews working overtime for the past month. The pace is slowing down as the downed trees have to be removed from the sidewalks and streets and yard debris has to be removed.
All of the wood that is gathered is taken to a chipping site and then burned at the District Energy Plant. This turns the trees into a useful energy source.
Minneapolis also burns trees and debris at Koda Energy so that electricity and steam heat can be generated for industrial use. The company also deposits wood chips around the city so residents can use them in their flower beds and gardens.
The reason why so many trees overturned is due to a lot of rain in the area. In addition, the trees leafed out much more than usual due to heavy rains in the spring. This made for the perfect canopy to catch the wind.
There was one Bur Oak tree that was down in Central Minneapolis. The tree trunk itself weighed 18,000 pounds and it was estimated to be over 200 years old. Crews are still discovering newly toppled trees although they were still standing after the storm.
While crews have been removing trees and debris and taking photos for FEMA, homeowners have had to assess their own damage and make calls to their insurance companies and to construction companies for estimates and the securing of the damage. Trees and debris impacted homes severely in some districts. Shingles blew off, siding blew off, and windows were broken by tree limbs and flying debris. Fortunately, homeowners are now having that damage repaired and they hope the weather stays calm for the rest of the summer.