Maybe so, but that's what happened. No joke. I saw it all. Hard to believe the storm got even stronger as it headed into Iowa. But it did.
Storm damage Cedar Rapids, IA
- Thread starter heimannm
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I was in West Virginia in an old mine shaft when this went through in 2012, and had no idea it happened until I came out.
we had to 4wheeled our trucks back 4 miles into the woods to get there, and then once out of the mine we had to walk out the trail because of all the trees down & I brought only a quart of fuel for my saw, a 192t.
We came back a week later, and it took 4 of us running saws, and 5guys moving stuff with large track hoes, for 3 days straight to chew through to the trucks after the storm and retrieve them. Miraculously nothing hit the trucks, and no one I knew was hurt.
We had no power, no cell, no internet where I lived for 16 days & we where not very far from town.
Thankfully a friend lent us a generator once his electricity came back on, so after the second day.
It's an adventure.
I would be glad to help cleanup, if needed, and I can get time off.
I don’t know how they forecast weather, but I was disappointed at the minimal coverage of its effects by the media, including The Weather Channel. Most were more concerned about high school and professional sports being disrupted by the pandemic. Only showed video of roofs being torn off buildings in Chicago. Got most of my information from Facebook type posts from friends, and from threads like this from AS members.
Philbert
Philbert
hoskvarna
Addicted to ArboristSite
I sure need help but I would not ask anybody to come that far [emoji3061]
Sent from Hoskey hilltop
They frankly don’t care about rural or small town folks. It’s disgusting. They’ve forgotten where food and raw materials come from.
Or as our wonderful governor put it “nothing but rocks and cows out there”.
I forgot to take any "after" photos today but we are making headway on getting the trees cut up and the brush hauled to the curb. I did uncover another large oak that blew down when I started removing the birch from the trampoline in the back yard. Depending on how you want to count the clump of mulberry, there will be no less than 10 large, mature trees and the red bud that will all be missing after this event. They won't have a single tree left in the back yard in what was once a heavily shaded yard.
Standing in the driveway looking across the street, you can begin to get an idea of the extent of the damage.
Two large oak trees in the front yard, neither can be saved.
Another massive oak that will be history.
As you can almost see, there are still several trees on the grey house to the right of the more visible brown house.
Mark
Standing in the driveway looking across the street, you can begin to get an idea of the extent of the damage.
Two large oak trees in the front yard, neither can be saved.
Another massive oak that will be history.
As you can almost see, there are still several trees on the grey house to the right of the more visible brown house.
Mark
eightmillimeter
New Member
I used to read this forum all the time back when I was getting ready to buy my first saw. Came back to it tonight because I wanted to read about bigger saws because of what I just saw in Cedar Rapids.
I grew up in CR and my parents and siblings all still live there. My mom started texting me when it hit and I knew it was bad. They did blow the sirens about 5 minutes prior. They lost about half of their roofing and then the heavy rain soaked that side of the house. Their street is only about 2 blocks long and at least a dozen homes had trees on them.
I have never seen damage like what I saw there. I would estimate 95% of trees had damage, 50% of trees over 30 ft tall are down.
The wind had to be sustained 90 mph for 10-15 minutes with gusts in the 110-120 range. Everything was laid over from west to east.
As I write this many roads are still impassable, especially in the older and more wooded residential areas. There is now wood stacked 10 feet high on both sides of every street as far as you can see.
Fuel is impossible to find within 30 miles.
Cell coverage is horrible.
After we got the house tarped I ran my 261C (best tool I’ve ever bought) non-stop for the better part of 24 hours and burned every drop of VT 94 octane I brought with me.
I had to return home but would have stayed if it was possible.
If anyone has time there are thousands in need of help, elderly, first responders working unable to tend to their own homes, churches, single moms, you name it.
I grew up in CR and my parents and siblings all still live there. My mom started texting me when it hit and I knew it was bad. They did blow the sirens about 5 minutes prior. They lost about half of their roofing and then the heavy rain soaked that side of the house. Their street is only about 2 blocks long and at least a dozen homes had trees on them.
I have never seen damage like what I saw there. I would estimate 95% of trees had damage, 50% of trees over 30 ft tall are down.
The wind had to be sustained 90 mph for 10-15 minutes with gusts in the 110-120 range. Everything was laid over from west to east.
As I write this many roads are still impassable, especially in the older and more wooded residential areas. There is now wood stacked 10 feet high on both sides of every street as far as you can see.
Fuel is impossible to find within 30 miles.
Cell coverage is horrible.
After we got the house tarped I ran my 261C (best tool I’ve ever bought) non-stop for the better part of 24 hours and burned every drop of VT 94 octane I brought with me.
I had to return home but would have stayed if it was possible.
If anyone has time there are thousands in need of help, elderly, first responders working unable to tend to their own homes, churches, single moms, you name it.
I've lots of saws and mix but I'm 1000 miles away. Hope the cleanup goes smoothly
hoskvarna
Addicted to ArboristSite
The boss and my buddy and I volunteered to help clean up in Tama today.
He was using log truck cherry-picker to load dump trucks, my buddy on chainsaw and me on bobcat with grapple
Doing it again tomorrow
Even though I don’t have mine cleaned up there are people worse off
Some don’t have houses anymore
What a mess
Sent from Hoskey hilltop
He was using log truck cherry-picker to load dump trucks, my buddy on chainsaw and me on bobcat with grapple
Doing it again tomorrow
Even though I don’t have mine cleaned up there are people worse off
Some don’t have houses anymore
What a mess
Sent from Hoskey hilltop
Very nice of you.
I have a bunch of smaller saws in need of minor repair. I should get them set up and just mail them out to whoever gets hit next with a storm like this.
We continued to make progress today, I took some photos in the morning but forgot to get any tonight. The latest report is it may be another 5-7 days before power is restored to most customers. We did get the limbs and tree off the major line going across the back of their place today but there is another power line laying on the ground in several pieces.
Near disaster was averted during tree felling by a strategically places cable (sorry Carl, wire rope)...seems I got a little carried away and cut through the hinge. A couple of branches brushes the house but the worst damage was one top layer shingle was broken. The Y shaped tree you see in the photos above fell between the house and the pile of logs.
We also found a large oak tree under the birch, that one landed on his garden shed in the back and extended over the wires behind their house. You can just see the trunk on the trampoline behind some birch branches.
I do wish we could find out where we can take the logs so I can get started hauling that pile away.
Mark
Near disaster was averted during tree felling by a strategically places cable (sorry Carl, wire rope)...seems I got a little carried away and cut through the hinge. A couple of branches brushes the house but the worst damage was one top layer shingle was broken. The Y shaped tree you see in the photos above fell between the house and the pile of logs.
We also found a large oak tree under the birch, that one landed on his garden shed in the back and extended over the wires behind their house. You can just see the trunk on the trampoline behind some birch branches.
I do wish we could find out where we can take the logs so I can get started hauling that pile away.
Mark
Indoctrinated you have become.
[emoji6]
[emoji6]
After working a few hurricanes and a tornado the trees are tricky with tension and compression unless they are laying on the ground.
Its a true blessing to be able to help others Mark , being of service and giving of yourself is gratitude in action.
Stay safe .
Another long, hot day but we are making progress on the trees we can safely deal with. The goal today was to try and get rid of this clump of mulberry with an elm thrown in for good measure. (Why do suburban homeowners let things get out of hand like this?)
Almost done.
There is a large birch that hangs over the house we have decided to leave to a crew with more equipment unless we can find an aerial lift that can climb the slope to the back yard. There is also a top broken over in a large oak that is resting on a dead tree beyond their property line. We are hoping the power line crew will take care of this when they get here since it is directly over the path of the lines. You can see some of the downed lines running behind the garden shed, there are more on the ground as well.
A few from the start of the day looking around the yard. You can see the birch leaning over the house and that clump of mulberry/elm just on the right end of the house. The elm was around 40' tall and we were able to lay it down right along side the fence.
I am saving that oak stem pointing at the shed for last, the only relatively easy sawing in the whole project.
Mark
Almost done.
There is a large birch that hangs over the house we have decided to leave to a crew with more equipment unless we can find an aerial lift that can climb the slope to the back yard. There is also a top broken over in a large oak that is resting on a dead tree beyond their property line. We are hoping the power line crew will take care of this when they get here since it is directly over the path of the lines. You can see some of the downed lines running behind the garden shed, there are more on the ground as well.
A few from the start of the day looking around the yard. You can see the birch leaning over the house and that clump of mulberry/elm just on the right end of the house. The elm was around 40' tall and we were able to lay it down right along side the fence.
I am saving that oak stem pointing at the shed for last, the only relatively easy sawing in the whole project.
Mark
That birch over the house has a pretty good crotch at the top , I don't know if you have bull rope and a throw ball but it could be directed?
I've used a small electric jlg lift for climbing up an incline or backing it up one because none of them are great at hills . The little ones are attached to your hitch so they go were the truck goes , the leveling sensors can be a pita on an incline and I'll keep it hooked the truck for stability.
Just some ideas , stay safe.
I've used a small electric jlg lift for climbing up an incline or backing it up one because none of them are great at hills . The little ones are attached to your hitch so they go were the truck goes , the leveling sensors can be a pita on an incline and I'll keep it hooked the truck for stability.
Just some ideas , stay safe.
Getting any kind of aerial lift into the back yard will be a challenge due to the steep sloping yard and the narrow space between their house and the neighbors fence. I am still hoping we can work something out when the crews arrive for the power line in back as they will have to deal with the oak tree with the broken top that is still over the wires.
We did accomplish quite a lot yesterday getting everything we could cleaned up, get rid of some old junk firewood, and finish up that clump of elm/mulberry.
What it looked like before...
What it looks like now...
My younger son Josh was the main sawyer yesterday and misjudged the lean on the large stub that was sticking up after we got all of the tops out...there will be a little more fence repair needed now. The neighbor on that side has been very understanding even though we are working days with the the saws and he is working 3rd shift for Alliant Energy getting the coal plant ready to go back on line.
I took my mini dozer down, as much to add a little fun to the activity as anything but is was really useful in getting the log splitter hauled up into the back yard. We working through most of the piles splitting the shorter pieces for their very small fireplace insert, the rest of the wood we are saving (mostly oak and mulberry) will have to find a home elsewhere.
Their new firewood stack...
The pile of wood we intend to save...
...and the pile of logs that we need to haul out...I expect the Struck mini dozer will be handy getting all of this down to the curb so we can load it on a trailer and haul it away.
I will take a couple of days away from their place to try and get two trees near my home I have been promising to remove for a couple of months, into the office on Tuesday for a "day off", then Wednesday back to Cedar Rapids to see if we can get the log pile gone.
Mark
We did accomplish quite a lot yesterday getting everything we could cleaned up, get rid of some old junk firewood, and finish up that clump of elm/mulberry.
What it looked like before...
What it looks like now...
My younger son Josh was the main sawyer yesterday and misjudged the lean on the large stub that was sticking up after we got all of the tops out...there will be a little more fence repair needed now. The neighbor on that side has been very understanding even though we are working days with the the saws and he is working 3rd shift for Alliant Energy getting the coal plant ready to go back on line.
I took my mini dozer down, as much to add a little fun to the activity as anything but is was really useful in getting the log splitter hauled up into the back yard. We working through most of the piles splitting the shorter pieces for their very small fireplace insert, the rest of the wood we are saving (mostly oak and mulberry) will have to find a home elsewhere.
Their new firewood stack...
The pile of wood we intend to save...
...and the pile of logs that we need to haul out...I expect the Struck mini dozer will be handy getting all of this down to the curb so we can load it on a trailer and haul it away.
I will take a couple of days away from their place to try and get two trees near my home I have been promising to remove for a couple of months, into the office on Tuesday for a "day off", then Wednesday back to Cedar Rapids to see if we can get the log pile gone.
Mark
