WILMINGTON — It took additional crews to clean-up in the aftermath of the thunderstorms with heavy rains and high winds that struck Clinton County Friday night into Saturday morning last week.
‘Incredible job’
City of Wilmington Safety/Service Director Brian Shidaker told the News Journal they had to bring in extra crews to take care of downed limbs and poles.
He said Truesdell Street, A Street, Indiana Avenue, and Mulberry Street (between Short and Truesdell streets) had to be closed down due to fallen tree branches and limbs.
He also advised that city crews were still be picking up debris on Friday of this week.
As for the water and wastewater departments, each had their work cut out for them.
“Fortunately the water department didn’t lose any power,” he said. “As for wastewater, they were pushed to capacity. But the staff was able to keep it moving.”
First responders also had a busy night.
“Dispatch was very busy with receiving calls,” said Shidaker. “Police assisted the street department with closing streets. The fire department made sure things were safe until DP&L was there to fix power lines.”
Shidaker gave credit to the hardworking city workers and first responders who worked to make sure things were safe and helping keep things in order.
“The staff did an incredible job, being out there in that weather, and they did a phenomenal job in the storm,” he said.
Clinton County work crews went out Friday night, June 18, and cleared off trees and tree limbs that were blocking the way after having fallen onto county roads, said Clinton County Engineer Jeff Linkous.
The roadways basically were open for Saturday, with the exception of three roads where electric lines had dropped down. Those three roads were opened up on Saturday, Linkous said.
Cleanup work will continue over the next couple weeks, he forecast, as the trees and limbs that were originally pushed off the road in order to clear the way for traffic, now need to be removed from the roadsides.
Overall, it seemed like the northwest part of the county may have been the area struck the hardest in terms of wind damage, the engineer added.
Earlier in the week, Brian Smith, President of Smith-Feike-Minton (SFM) Insurance in Wilmington, told the News Journal they’ve only had around 20 claims presented to them.
“There were tree limbs going through houses and roofs, damage to building siding and roofs due to flying debris, and hail damage to vehicles,” said Smith, adding that, fortunately, the hail wasn’t that large here.”
Several thousand residents and businesses were without power for anywhere from a few hours to upwards of two days, especially in more rural areas of Clinton County.
Many residents faced clean-up jobs — from a few limbs and branches to large trees down, to lost roofing shingles to damaged or destroyed garages or carports.