Neighbors Come Together To Clear Trees From Rose Park Roadways

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – There was no shortage of neighbors helping neighbors in the Rose Park area following Tuesday’s devastating storm.

High winds knocked down dozens of trees that blocked almost every street north of 1000 North between 900 West and Redwood Road.

“There are just a lot of people that can’t get out of their driveways and can’t get where they need to be,” resident Marcus Wolfgramm said.

Neighbors are coming together to clear the streets. This group has been out all day…so far has cleared 5 streets, 3-4 trees per street @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/f2R1LeV8Eq

— Ashley Moser (@AshleyMoser) September 8, 2020

Residents with chainsaws spent most of the day clearing dozens of downed trees. Their goal was to get the roadways cleared for emergency vehicles and for city crews working to remove the broken branches and tree limbs.

“We have been to about five or six streets with three to four trees a street, and we’re just basically trying to clear them out,” Wolfgramm said. “Luckily my chainsaw worked after five years and we kind of got after it.”

Resident Eric Anderson said the winds were relentless from about 7 to 9 a.m.

“It was catastrophic,” he said. “Just down this was there’s a tree on the house.”

Roads were not the only things impacted. A couple of homes and cars were hit by fallen trees. Anderson said seeing strangers coming together was certainly the only positive aspect to come out of this storm.

Downed trees every 15 feet!
We sped up our gopro shot of our drive through Rose Park.

On the north side of 1000 north between 9th West and Redwood Road almost every single street was blocked.
Full report at 10:00 @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/JLjTQ7Psf4

— Ashley Moser (@AshleyMoser) September 9, 2020

“I’ve been really impressed by just how many people have been out here,” he said. “Community is really, really important. It’s something that can’t be bought or sold — it has to be built.”

Carbon Dioxide Warning

And as Utahns continue to clean up and tens of thousands remained without power Tuesday night, police departments are sending out a warning to those trying to power their homes with a gas generator, or heat their homes with space heaters that burn fuel.

“If you have a generator please operate it safely. Make sure there is proper ventilation because we don’t want the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning affecting your family and those that you love,” said Lt. Brian Eynon with the Ogden City Police Department. “You want to be very mindful that you can’t smell carbon monoxide and it can take just a little small heater that has fuel in it like kerosene or gasoline.”