Last Thursday was exactly four months since our storm of historic proportions, but there is still clean-up to be done.
Roads and roofs needed to be cleared of storm debris, but the work of removing the stumps and replacing sod will continue through the spring as homeowners find time, manpower and equipment, and money to deal with it all.
It’s hard to tell from this photo, but the residents can still enter the house from the front porch, as long as they duck just a little bit and keep to the far left. I’m guessing that they did not have insurance to cover the damage to the porch roof.
I really don’t know why some trees blew over and others were spared. Some neighborhoods definitely had more damage than others. Regular watering (sprinkler irrigation) probably played a part in aiding a shallow root system. But sometimes it all made little sense — for example, while our 3 large spruce trees remain standing tall, our next door neighbor had 2 trees leaning against his house by the end of that windy night.
The silver lining is a shed filled with wood curing for future winter warmth.
Spokalulu 
We’ve had a couple of major storms since we lived in this area that brought down trees in that same way, where the root systems come up as well. We’ve never had to deal with it in our yard, but it must be an enormous amount of work to get rid of the roots, fill the hole, and re-sod.
We had one storm many years ago now that was a micro-blast, where the wind came straight down and then spread out horizontally, like water in a faucet. That storm broke all the trees off like matchsticks, rather than bringing up the roots.
It is a tremendous amount of work! I couldn’t get out and explore after the storm, so it amazes me to still be able take pictures of storm damage. There are quite a few roofs with blue tarp keeping out the rain, and although more and more of these tree trunks are finally getting removed, the fact that I can see them on a regular basis is a testament to the devastation wreaked by this storm.
It’s quite sobering to see and hear that it is like this a full four months after the storm. It makes me sad to see trees down. And sad that people’s houses are still in disrepair.
YIKES! That’s some scary stuff. Falling trees are so dangerous.
That storm hit in the afternoon. All after-school activities were cancelled but that didn’t stop my cross-country runner from going running. I was agog at his foolishness and grateful that he didn’t get hit by falling branches or trees.
Wow, that’s amazing. But like.. not good amazing, obviously.
(Shoot, do you need to cure firewood?? We’re about to move into a house with a real fireplace for the first time, and it didn’t occur to me I need to learn how to make or store WOOD!)
You can buy firewood by the cord or by the truckload, and usually the people selling it have already “cured” it. “Green” wood is often too smoky. Congratulations on your new house!
Those are some BIG trees downed. It’s amazing to me how wind can pick and choose what it takes and what it leaves behind.
I couldn’t match these.