Grande Prairie is dealing with the aftermath of winds gusting up to 100 kilometres an hour Wednesday. In addition to fallen signs and runaway trampolines, the city crews are working to clean up broken and damaged trees. Parks Manager Josy Burrough says the issue was compounded by the 108 millimetres of rain the Swan City has seen since Saturday.
“It’s those 100 kilometre an hour gusts, and then you combine that with a tree that’s already saturated with moisture inside and outside, and then you get that wind; well, that’s a lot of wind load when you think of all those leaves all they all have a little bit of rain on them. That’s a lot of weight.”
Burrough expects the full cleanup to take two weeks, so long as we don’t have more wet and windy weather. Crews are spending much of their time in Swanavon and V-L-A.
“Some of our very large poplars snapped above the ground or snapped at the bottom; that’s unusual to see, that’s a heck of an event. Any of the areas that have large poplars or old green ash, those areas definitely suffered lots of damage.”
There have been more than 100 calls made to the city for tree repair or removal, and Burrough says they’ll be dealing with ones blocking roads or causing safety concerns first. Residents with fallen or damaged trees on their private property will have to call a professional for help.