Cleaning up After the Windstorm

For 38 years, Donald Hass has lived on Linda Rosa Avenue—next to two gigantic pine trees, one of which crashed during Wednesday’s windstorm and is proving something of a headache for the Bureau of Street Services.

“I’m just glad it didn’t crash into her house,” Hass said Friday, referring to his neighbor who lives across the street—and on whose property the tree’s top landed after savaging a smaller tree that stood in the path of its fall. Two cars parked on the street escaped any damage as the tree miraculously landed between them.

It will probably take two days for Street Services crews to cut the tree into smaller pieces and cart them away, said Martin Alarcon, an employee for the bureau tasked with clearing the blocked street near the Floristan Avenue crossing south of Colorado Boulevard.

It will take more than the Bureau of Street Services, however, to dispose of the tree, which has become a local attraction (to get to it, hang a right on Floristan immediately after Trader Joe’s, while driving east on Colorado).

Because the bureau doesn’t have a chainsaw big enough to cut the tree’s enormous stump (see photo), the Department of Urban Forestry will have to get into the act as well, Alarcon explained. 

Meanwhile, LADWP General Manager Ron Nichols told in a telephone conversation that as of 6 p.m. Friday about 14,500 CD 14 residents were without power, according to a newsletter emailed by Huizar’s office on Friday night.

Huizar, who contacted Nichols to inquire about the status of power outages in CD 14, was told that LADWP crews working 24 hours hope to reduce the number of “powerless” consumers in the council district to about 2,000 by Saturday morning. (Some 1,600 LADWP consumers in Eagle Rock and 6,300 in Highland Park were without power at the time of the utility’s latest communiqué at 10 p.m. on Thursday.)

Street Services crews are currently removing palm fronds and smaller branches from Northeast neighborhoods, the newsletter from Huizar’s office said, adding that the crews will continue their work throughout the weekend.

Huizar urges residents to contact the on Colorado Boulevard during normal business hours at (323) 254-5295 to report trees or branches that have fallen because of the Nov. 30-Dec. 1 windstorm.

Windstorm debris can also be brought directly to the attention of the Bureau of Street Services, which can be reached at (800) 996-2489 or by dialing City Information at 311 and asking for the bureau.

To report unresolved power outages, contact the LADWP at (800) 342-5397.

Residents whose properties were damaged because of the windstorm are encouraged to file reports with the appropriate agencies and to check their insurance records for coverage details, says the CD 14 newsletter.

CD 14 staff have also arranged for several pickup trucks to supplement a weekend cleanup of storm debris, which will be conducted with the help of volunteers. A large dumpster has been installed at Eagle Rock City Hall for residents to drop off tree limbs or other green waste.

Efforts are underway to install a second dumpster at the Bureau of Street Services yard at 2231 Fair Park Ave., west of Eagle Rock Boulevard, according to the CD 14 newsletter.

Residents who would like to volunteer for the cleanup should reach the Northeast Office at Eagle Rock City Hall, located at 2035 Colorado Blvd., by 9 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3 or Sunday, Dec. 4.