Crews remove fallen trees in western WA as they prepare for more wind
SEATTLE - Toppled trees on cars, homes, scattered on the roads — it’s become an all too familiar sight across western Washington these last couple of days.
FOX 13 Seattle caught up with crews as they worked to remove those trees and time is ticking, as we’re in store for another round of high winds, which could knock down more trees with it.
"I’m pretty lucky," said Salena Hayek. On Thursday, she watched crews remove a tree from her dad’s house.
The same tree that crashed through the roof of the house and right into her bedroom.
"I sat up in bed and I just felt the roof come down on to me," Hayek said.
Fortunately, she’s okay, but this was just one of the dozens of stops Peter Gruenwoldt, the owner of Seattle Tree Care, and his crews have made over the last couple of days.
"It’s almost like a triage situation in a hospital," Gruenwoldt said.
With another round of high winds expected, he told FOX 13 Seattle that the impact those winds could have on already vulnerable trees is top of mind.
"Look up into the trees, look at the canopy and if something doesn’t look right, there’s a good chance it isn’t," Gruenwoldt said.
"In almost all tree failure scenarios, they’re going to follow the weight with gravity, so if you have a tree unbalanced and a huge amount of foliage here and a little here, almost always, it’s going to go with the weight. When it comes to high winds, you can’t say that with certainty, wind, depending on the volume, can definitely push a tree in the opposite direction," explained Zeke Burson with Eco Tree Northwest.
They, too, have been removing downed trees nonstop. Burson also recommends looking at the tree’s foundation.
"If you see the ground, shifting or plucking or doing anything weird, or the dirt is disrupted, the tree has begun uprooting, once that’s started almost always, you’re going to have a failure the next storm that comes through," Burson said.
Both men told FOX 13 Seattle that if you have any questions, call the professionals, and don’t take matters into your own hands.
"Trees, I’ve been doing this for years, and they even surprise me; they’re heavier and larger than you think they are," Gruenwoldt said.
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