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Still much to do in Bluefield a week after Helene blew through

 

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BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — Tree removal expert Chucky Williams leaned against his pick-up truck filled to the top with large tree stumps Thursday afternoon on Parkway Avenue in Bluefield with some satisfaction. Another job was done.

Williams, who owns Williams Tree Service, has been at it since last Friday morning when the winds from Tropical Storm Helene started to reach the Bluefield area. He hasn’t stopped since.

”Three of us have been going since six o’clock last Friday morning, get home after dark every night, back out at six the next morning and you can’t turn your brain off when you get home,” Williams told MetroNews.

Those in Bluefield have never seen anything quite like what Helene did to them. The storm included five inches of rain and howling winds for hours.

“Devastating,” that’s how Tyler Perry described the wind that knocked down five trees in his yard, several of them which were uprooted, that Williamson removed.

“It blew every bit of four to five hours. It was non-stop,” a worn-out Perry said. “You couldn’t even step outside it was that bad.”

Charting the damage

Members of Bluefield City Manager Cecil Marson’s team have been charting the damage at city hall for the past week.

A large flat screen monitor told the story.

–98 streets have been impacted by downed trees

–more than half of the trees have been uprooted and are 30-inches in diameter or larger

–the city is managing 10,000 tons of tree debris within its 9 square miles

–more than 21 homes have reported significant structural damage due to fallen trees

Marson said it’s been a tough week but Bluefield has a lot of tough citizens.

“We’ve had a lot of good support. If there’s anything positive to take from this that’s been inspiring,” Marson told MetroNews. “We’re getting things cleaned up and we’re trying to move forward.”

He said power had been restored to 80% of Bluefield residents by Thursday afternoon. There remain several thousand more customers without service in other parts of Mercer County, places like Lashmeet and Matoaka.

Dozens of Appalachian Power Company line crews are staging in the parking lot of Mitchell Stadium. Some of those linemen are from as far away as Texas. Marson said it’s a good place for staging because crews can leave there and head to West Virginia or Virginia outage calls pretty easily.

Cleanup far from over

Williams said if he didn’t take on another customer from the Helene storm he would have four straight months of work from the jobs he’s already booked. Bluefield’s Public Works Department and other contractors are just as busy.

Williams said the trees in Perry’s yard were perfectly healthy. They included a Hickory, an Oak and a Maple.

“This was a big job,” Williams said. “We had an 18-ton crane sitting here, two excavators and two dump trucks. This was a huge job.”

Perry lost his back deck but none of the trees crashed through his roof. Other Bluefield residents weren’t as fortunate.

Williams said he’s amazed at the force of the wind. He said the number of large trees that were uprooted is amazing. He said trees that are blown over present different challenges for those who remove them.

“It’s dangerous work,” he said. “They get a lot of tension on them in areas you don’t expect. You never know with that next cut if something is going to take you out.”

Marson and others are hoping for a federal disaster declaration. A number of residents have already completed damage assessment surveys. Marson is urging other residents to do the same.





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