By Jill Sperling

Cleanup begins after destructive wind storm

Oct 18, 2017 | 3:34 PM

KAMLOOPS — Tuesday’s wind storm ripped up trees and brought down branches across Kamloops, creating a big mess. 

City Parks crews were busy removing and chipping fallen trees and branches at McArthur Island Park Wednesday afternoon, after cleaning debris from streets and alleyways. 

Powerful wind gusts of over 100 km/hr managed to uproot several trees in the park, with some even falling near paths and walkways. 

Private tree service crews were also busy, responding to fallen trees in yards and on homes. 

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“It’s getting hard to keep up, for sure,” said Larry Kwak, owner of Pine Valley Tree Service. “We’re just inundated with calls, which is good for business, but it’s bad for people, and their homes.”

Pine Valley Tree Service had about 35 sites to respond to, both in Kamloops and surrounding communities. 

Kwak says many of the trees that had fallen were either weakened by rotting trunks, or multi-stemmed. 

He adds people should be proactive to prevent damage to homes and properties.

“If they give us a call, or any experienced tree company a call, we’ll go out and look at their trees and then we can decipher what the trees need, if they need to be cable embraced if they want to save the tree, or if they need to be pruned down, take some weight off, or need to be removed,” Kwak said.  

“People need to look at their trees more often and don’t let them grow as big and as wide and sort of wild looking, they need to do more upkeep on their trees, more maintenance on their trees.”