Six weeks after windstorm, tree debris remains in some Omaha neighborhoods

The Public Works Department had originally hoped to complete the pickup project by Labor Day weekend. As of Thursday, a map on the city’s website shows tree debris efforts are still ongoing in a couple of neighborhoods in north central Omaha and several neighborhoods south of West Dodge Road in west Omaha.

Steven Rue, the construction and street maintenance engineer with the Public Works Department, said in an email the city hopes to have cleared tree debris in every neighborhood by the end of next week. As of Thursday, about 93% of the areas have been cleared.

“As we have progressed through this process, some areas were very severely affected making it difficult to estimate the total amount of debris that would need to be hauled away. Even as we have added crews and resources to some of the hardest hit areas, the time to clear these just takes longer,” Rue wrote.

Crews continues to work long hours to clear the debris, Rue wrote. Through Labor Day, crews worked 12 hours per day six days per week. Even now, Rue said crews are working 10 hours per day Mondays through Fridays with overtime being offered on Saturdays.

One resident expressed frustration with the prolonged cleanup process.

Janice Mohs, who lives with her husband in the Skylark Heights residential neighborhood near 112th and Pacific Streets, said earlier this week the tree limbs that have lined the curbs have created a traffic hazard.

Last weekend, she almost got hit head-on while she was driving along Hickory Road and turning onto Pine, she said. On that stretch of road, tree debris on both sides spilled over onto the residential road and effectively reduced it to one lane.

The Mohses, along with some of their neighbors, have paid private contractors to clean up debris from their property rather than wait for the city.

“I realize (city crews) are working long, hard hours. But this is one of the neighborhoods like Dundee that got hit really bad,” Mohs said. “This is a neighborhood that has 60-year-old trees that just got devastated.”

Continued signs of apparent storm damage are also present in other neighborhoods. A street sign marking the intersection of 100th Avenue and Ohio Street laid bent at the base in the Maplewood Hills neighborhood earlier this week. Extensive lines of tree debris spanned along curbsides.

For the most part, residents have adhered to placing only tree debris on curbsides, Rue said. He added crews have seen everything from bags of trash to kitchen sinks but those oddball items have been “few and far between.” Rue said most residents were grateful when crews arrived and picked up the tree debris in their neighborhoods. A few residents have even offered water and snacks to crew members.

“At this point I think everyone knows how the process works. It’s just a matter of our crews continuing to move forward and finish out these last few areas,” Rue said.