SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — The deadly Jan. 13 windstorm's cleanup process is far from over, according to the City of Spokane.
The storm left two people dead as it ripped through Spokane and left widespread damage across the Inland Northwest.
It is much easier to clean up tree branches than it is a full Ponderosa pine, which is why the city is still calculating the amount of damage more than a week after the storm.
The city finished the cleanup of trees and branches in public right-of-way four days after the deadly storm, but tons of tree debris on residential property just keeps adding up.
"Just at Waste to Energy alone, there are 350 tons or so of tree material," Public Works Department Spokesperson Marlene Feist said.
Those 350 tons are just from residents bringing in their home's tree debris and it makes up only a portion of the tree damage in the city.
Feist said about 900 customers have disposed of their branches, but numbers are still coming in for the city's right-of-way debris, curbside residential pickup and park disposal.
"We ended up with around 250 locations where we had to deal with trees or tree debris in the public right-of-way," she continued. "One hundred dump truck loads of tree debris were being moved out of city neighborhoods, on a daily basis for a couple days."
Since the process is ongoing, there are no definitive numbers to how much more destruction needs to be taken care of. She assumed it is going to be in the triple digits of tons, maybe even quadruple of tons.
In comparison to the 2015 storm, Feist said the city was much more prepared, as it wasn't as severe. It did, however, have its own challenges that may have cost the city more money.
"In the pandemic, we did have more limitations on how we could provide assistance," she said. "We did bring extra crews on so it wasn't just the Streets department."
They brought in more people and held numerous free drop offs and pickups that normally would cost money.
Since they are working with Parks, they cannot calculate the total cost until that division has fully cleaned up their areas, according to Feist. She estimated we will know the total in early Feb.
She confirmed around 130 trees have come down in city parks. Some trees and broken branches remain at risk of falling. Fifty of those trees are in Comstock Park.
Free disposal is also available at the Waste to Energy Facility (WTE) on Geiger Boulevard through Saturday, Jan. 30.