Cleanup Continuing In Centerville After Winds Cause Damage, Outages
Sep 9, 2020, 9:26 AM | Updated: 12:49 pm
CENTERVILLE, Utah – Cleanup started in Centerville Wednesday morning, one of the areas hardest hit by Tuesday’s wind storm.
“Yesterday was the perfect storm,” said Paul Cox, a resident who was out early assessing the damage near Willow Wood Drive and Willow Valley Drive. It is an area that experienced 90-mile-per-hour winds that knocked down a power pole, forcing one home to evacuate before live lines were removed off the front yard.
The hurricane-level winds tore siding and shingles off of homes, ripped trees from the ground and knocked out power to most of the city.
“Thank goodness for rechargeable flashlights, I guess,” said Cox.
Wednesday brought a fresh look at the damage, and there is a lot of work to be done.
“We had a gas leak, a water leak and a power problem all right on top of each other,” said Centerville Police Chief Paul Childs. “We did have one officer trying to clear out debris early yesterday, and he got hit in the head with flying debris – pretty much rang his bell.”
While the winds are much calmer, the threat of downed power lines and residents getting hurt during clean-up was still a concern for Childs.
“The city has designated three locations so far where residents can take their green waste,” said Childs.
Those areas include Smoot Park, 1550 N. Main St.; Freedom Hills Park, 2150 N. 150 East; and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse at 350 N. 400 East. City workers at those locations will load the green waste and haul it off.
Rocky Mountain Power is working around the clock to get power restored, but it could take until Thursday.