Tuesday night’s snow and wind hit Spokane’s South Hill particularly hard. Heavy snow and ice damaged trees along arterials and in many residential neighborhoods.
On some of the residential streets, broken branches of all sizes laid right in the middle of streets. City crews came around to remove the branches out of the arterials, but on these side streets, there are a lot of folks who are going to come home to some interesting situations tonight.
Walking around some of these neighborhoods this morning, you could hear people running chain saws as they removed tree branches from sidewalks and driveways. At least one branch had fallen on a car.
At one corner near 23rd and Post, a live electrical wire had fallen near Gary Anderson’s house. Anderson had strung some yellow tape across the street to keep people away.
“I’m seeing deja vu from November 1996," he said. "Things started popping about 9 o’clock last night and I heard a fire truck out here and it was before any of this damage and it was because this live wire is down.”
Matt George stood with Anderson with a small saw in hand.
“Bow saw and it doesn’t make quick work of this. You really need a chain saw," he said.
What are you hoping to do with all of these branches?
“Just try to clear the streets out so people can drive by, clear the sidewalks," he said.
A block away, two women were dragging branches into a big trailer.
“Hi, do you know anything about whether the city takes branches out of the street?” she called out to a stranger.
As it turns out, later in the morning, the city announced people who have trees and tree limbs can dispose of them for free at the Waste to Energy Plant.
City crews were up on the South Hill clearing streets and sidewalks. The city asked residents to call 3-1-1 if they saw situations that could cause safety issues. Avista continued to work to restore power to neighborhoods that lost it.