High winds and heavy rain battered the City of Clintonville on Friday, Aug. 20, as numerous trees were knocked down and power lines were snapped under the weight of felled branches.
“The worst damage was on the northeast side of town,” said City Administrator Lisa Kuss. “Robert Street, McKinley Avenue, and 15th Street seemed to be the worst.”
Power to that area of town was out at around 5:20 p.m. and utility crews worked until 5:30 a.m. Saturday to restore electrical service.
Public Works Manager Mike McCord worked to coordinate tree removal efforts, while linemen and ground crews worked hard to keep people away from downed power lines until they could be repaired.
Kuss said branch and debris cleanup will take a few more days, and encouraged residents to pile branches near the curb. Crews have been busy picking up the debris this week.
“Even though there were multiple places around town that needed to be addressed in the wake of the storm, I thought everything went quite well,” said Clintonville Police Department Captain Jim Beggs. “We got out quickly and secured the dangerous areas with live power lines and the utility crews got power restored. Other than that, it’s just a clean-up operation now with the Street Department employees. People were very cooperative, and we had no incidents.”