EDEN, N.C. (WGHP ) — Power outages are not a problem anymore in Eden.
Now, the challenge is getting trees off homes. Some have limbs so thick, it takes hours to cut through them.
While the cleanup continues, the first goal is to get the electrical wires taken care of. Then the next priority is removing these trees from the road so the city can open up the streets. Lastly, the city will go around and pick up debris people leave on the curb.
City crews have hauled more than 63 dump trucks full of debris to the landfill, and they expect the side to keep filling up with leaves, branches and tree limbs.
“It’s is a lot of extensive damage,” said Andrew Lucas the owner of Acorn Tree Care.
He has been working on one of the hardest-hit homes off of Church Street in Eden.
“The whole house is shifted at least three to four inches,” Lucas said.
Nobody was home at the time the tree fell on the home on Church Street. A contractor was inside working as they were in the process of turning it into a rental home. She was out of the house about 20 minutes before the tree came crashing down.
Lucas and his team are used to removing trees standing, but it’s a different approach for one that fell and twisted on the way down.
“We can communicate back and forth, so the guys can look at different angles and talk to us back and forth,” Lucas said.
They check the structure of the house as they go and any movements of the tree.
“It takes a lot longer. You have to be a lot more cautious and safe to make sure stuff doesn’t fall on people below,” he said.
In total, Lucas estimates this tree removal will take 20-25 hours of work. For him, this job is personal since he knows the homeowners and said they did all the right things to prevent this from happening.
“They called us out several years ago to prune the trees in the back and remove stuff so damage wouldn’t happen to their property. Those trees held up because the air free-flowed through them,” he said.
The tree that fell was on a neighbor’s property. It’s a reminder anything can happen during these summer storms. This one was likely a microburst with peak wind gusts around 70 miles per hour.
The owner at Acorn Tree Care says after this storm, he’s getting phone calls for tree pruning to protect other properties. He says it’s a good idea to call the professionals and not try to do it yourself.
