Holiday wind storm provides mess of tree branches for Remsen citizens

By: Megan Sabin The Fourth of July Holiday saw a random wind storm come down upon the city of Remsen. According to Interim Public Works/Utility Superintendent Chris Poeckes, this wind storm took place on Wednesday, July 4 between 5:30-6:00 p.m. Poeckes stated, “We didn’t see any warnings or anything about this storm.” Rain was in the forecast but this wind storm seemed to have came out of nowhere. After the storm was over on the first night, Poeckes stated, “Three of us worked to get trees and such off the road.” This was for about four or five hours. Most of the damage was tree related, but Poeckes said, “We did lose one power line going to someone’s house that lost power but we got them back on that first night. They had to call an electrician to do the rest of the work on the inside. Also, only one street light got knocked away. It could have been a lot worse.” Thursday, July 5 was a big day of cleaning up for lots of Remsen residents. Fallen tree limbs and branches filled almost every block and street in front and back yards. It also looked like most of the branches fell just missing houses, as city workers weren’t aware of any major structural damage that took place. It has been a long process for clean up. Poeckes explained, “Hopefully we’ll have it all picked up by Tuesday (July 10) or Wednesday (July 11) for sure. We got a really big mess down at one of our city parks, Beck Park, so that will take a couple more days to clean up.” Eight to ten workers with the City of Remsen have been working eight hours a day since Thursday, July 5 to clean up the debris. Residents and volunteers have been working together to help pick up the debris. Some residents even taking that Thursday off of work as well to clean up. Poeckes expressed his gratitude for all the workers’ help, “’I just want to thank all the City workers for their long hours working and all the volunteers that helped out.”