(KATV) Little Rock - The heavy snow and ice has weighed trees down for days, causing
large trees and limbs to fall. With freezing rain on the way, debris could get
worse. Trees are causing detours and those partially or completely on a city street, city
workers will pick them up. Crews are moving quickly, but there is a long and
growing list.
Carrie Lamb says, "Christmas night, I heard a bunch of
snapping." Lamb lives in the heights, trees as tall as the home snapped
across her yard, and caused road blocks.
She points, "And this nice bush over here is on top of the
car."
Lamb has not lost power, but the way the trees are leaning, she is
concerned she will join the list of tens of thousands without power. Her fear
doesn't stop there, "And maybe a big tree falling on top of my house."
However, on this day her home is on a different list, that to get
trees picked up that have fallen, partially or completely on city streets.
Operations Manager for Public Works, Eric Petty says, as quickly
as they move the debris, more locations are called in.
Petty says there isn't a Ward in Little Rock worse than another, "Really
the entire city. Trees are down across the whole city." He continues, "At
this point we're cutting the trees up, laying them to the side of the road, we
get them out of the street and we will come back and pick up the debris at a
later date." The process allows crews to move faster than having to haul
them off now.
Petty expects his crews to be out through in the city for days to
come.
Lamb smiles, "I was excited to see them out here cutting the tree
today. I'm very thankful they got the tree out of the way."
Crews don't touch a tree until they verify through Entergy that it's
safe and there are no live wires. They're doing 12 hour shift.
Petty
adds, "On the night shift, those crews are doing the
plowing of the snow and trying to get the snow off the street and barricading
anything that's unsafe. The day shift is a lot larger, it's probably 70 people
and they haul our material around. The take salt to the satellite yards and
they also have crews that go around and cut trees out of the streets."
CONTACT:
You can call the City
of Little Rock by dialing 3-1-1 or call the Public Works dispatch line at (501)
918-3641.
If you don't live in
Little Rock, call your City Hall office and ask for the Streets or Public Works
Department.
