Windsor’s mayor says city crews are out, and they’ve activated every contractor they have to help clean up the tree damage following a major storm that hit the city.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens told AM800’s Mornings with Mike and Meg that the senior leadership team is meeting to figure out special collections and other response measures.
“We’re just trying to figure out where to allocate the resources to have the biggest bang and take care of the issues that residents have experienced, not just yesterday, but we’re still dealing with the storm cleanup from a few days before that. There’s lots of work to do here, and it’s probably going to take us well over a week, probably two weeks, to get this done,” he says.
City forestry crews have been working through service requests for downed trees impacting the municipal right-of-way, with over 400 requests received over the last two days following two significant storms.
The Forestry Department, along with multiple contracted crews, is prioritizing emergency situations, hazardous tree conditions, downed trees, power-line concerns and the hardest-hit areas.
Windsor Police Service received a significant number of storm-related calls for service.
Between approximately 4:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., officers responded to 49 calls involving downed trees or power lines and 10 calls involving traffic control lights or signage, with the greatest concentration in the Riverside neighbourhood between Pillette Road and Jefferson Boulevard.
Police say there were a small number of minor storm-related injuries reported.
Dilkens says Windsor Fire and the city’s 311 number have also been receiving calls.
“All of the lists are being consolidated. Almost all of the police requests, which are the immediate ones or urgent ones, have been dealt with,” he says. “We just ask if you’ve called once or left a message once; you don’t have to call back. We’re consolidating that list; it will just make it more difficult if you call again. If you’ve left a message, we’re on it, and we’ll get to you as quickly as possible.”
Dilkens says a lot of people have been uploading pictures and sending them in through the 311 app, which is great.
“If they send in the picture through the app, we can see it, and it helps us prioritize some of the work without actually having to send someone out. We want to clear the roads and clear the sidewalks; that’s the first priority. Then get to everything else in a systematic order with all of the contractors and crews that we have,” he says.
Pick-ups of storm-related tree waste will be performed on the same day of the week as regular yard waste pick-up. The city will be providing an additional tree waste collection for Windsor residents over the coming weeks, based on resident service requests submitted through the Windsor 311 app.
Residents are asked to limit the length of the branches to 4 feet and the thickness to no more than 4 inches, limit the weight of branches to 44 pounds, and tie tree branches together if possible. Any other storm-related tree waste can be dropped off at the City’s Public Drop Off Depot at no charge.
The Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University in London says two suspected tornadoes went through East Windsor and Amherstburg on Thursday afternoon. A team will be in the area Friday to survey the damage and determine if a tornado officially touched down.