Winds Blow Down Dozens Of Trees At State Capitol
Sep 8, 2020, 5:52 PM | Updated: 9:07 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The winds roaring down City Creek Canyon Tuesday morning blew down dozens of trees at the Utah State Capitol and in nearby neighborhoods.
Some people in the neighborhood believe there might be nearly as much tree damage at the capitol as when a tornado ripped through 21 years ago. Winds this morning uprooted and damaged more than a dozen trees on capitol grounds.
LIVE NOW: About a dozen trees were damaged around the Utah State Capitol Building this morning. Stay on alert if you're in the area. pic.twitter.com/vQyTdkkQWo
— KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) September 8, 2020
“This is very similar damage to what I remember from the tornado,” said Mike Hussey, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than two decades.
His family and others see the capitol grounds as their neighborhood park. He said his children even build forts in a couple of the trees in years past.
“It’s just unfortunate,” he said. “We have been here in the neighborhood for 25 years, and this has become a great part of the community, and to see this with the trees is really heart wrenching.”
Cleanup crews got to work quickly, while others in the neighborhood checked out the spectacle.
North of the capitol, fierce winds dropped trees in the road and up against homes.
“At 5 a.m., it really hit and we kept hearing some thumps on the roof,” said Laura Miller, who later discovered those thumps were trees landing against her house.
She said her home was creaking and moaning as the winds whipped around.
“I heard a huge crack, and then kind of just a crash, and it wasn’t at our house because nothing shook,” she said.
They ran to the front window and saw that a huge tree had fallen from a neighbor’s yard into the street, as the winds continued to batter her home.
“So, that’s what I was mostly scared of, my house was moaning and creaking,” said Miller.
The wind kept up and dropped a couple of their neighbor’s trees against her home.
“She called, and said ‘Sorry, just so you know, our trees came down on your roof’ and we had heard a huge thump,” said Miller. “I knew something landed on my roof.”
A couple of blocks away, Dan Moulding had just come back inside after inspecting three trees that fell in his backyard, and luckily missed his home.
“As we were watching out the front, we could see this one here was just swaying back-and-forth, and we watched as it slowly came down,” he said.
It landed the street.
“It was a little bit unnerving for a good 30 minutes there,” he said.
