Tree experts: Some storm damage could have been prevented

Saturday's storms resulted in hundreds of downed trees.

July 09, 2012|by Emily Wood, KY3 News | ewood@ky3.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- It will likely take weeks to clean up the damage caused by the storms that rolled through the Ozarks on Saturday. Tree experts said Monday that some of the damage caused by downed trees could have been prevented.

"We are seeing trees that uprooted and blew over that had major pockets of decay," said Noel Boyer, an arborist and the owner of All About Trees, a company in Springfield.

Boyer said some of the warning signs that homeowners can see include major spots of decay on tree trunks and cracks or splits in the bark of tree trunks.

"Yesterday, we took a big huge hollow tree off of a house that just basically snapped off," Boyer said.

Todd Duncan and his 8-year-old son, Gavin, were home on Saturday afternoon when storms rolled through the area. The high winds snapped a major limb off an old tree in their front yard.

"Just a big snap. I think anybody familiar with the ice storm knows that terrible snap you hear when a tree goes," said Duncan.

The broken branch fell into another large tree in their yard. The intact tree kept the broken limb of the other tree from slamming through their roof.

"It was pretty much right over Gavin's room, so we were pretty worried about that, have been last couple days," Duncan said.

The Duncans are one of dozens of families now relying on local experts to help keep them safe. Boyer said he has several employees out cleaning up debris right now, and the work will likely take a couple weeks.

"The guys are trying to get caught up on trees that are on houses, trees blocking driveways, trees that are precariously hanging over structures," Boyer said.

Many of the weekend's downed trees simply fell flat and are not threats to the homes and cars around them.

Boyer said some of the damage around the area could have been prevented, but the problems with the tree that nearly fell on the Duncans' home would have been next to impossible to spot.

"Two trunks had grown together. It had included bark, and that was a weak spot that wasn't readily apparent," Boyer said.

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