MISSOULA — The sound of chainsaws echoed through Missoula as homeowners and city and county crews worked to clean up the carnage left behind by Wednesday night’s storms.
Although there’s a huge mess to clean up, the people we talked with on Thursday were in pretty good spirits.
- PHOTOS: Western Montana storm damage
Little Twigs Childcare was closed on Thursday when a big twig from a maple tree fell across the playground. But then, it was dads to the rescue.
“I drove by and saw people working and I don’t think anyone’s having a super normal day today, so we’re just helping,” said Dustin McHenry.
” You know, I didn’t even ask anyone to show up. I put the word out that we were closed and these guys just showed up," Lil Twigs Childcare owner Marmot Snetsinger told MTN.
It was the same scene all over town.
We headed to the Franklin to the Fort neighborhood and found that Mother Nature had snapped one tree like a #2 pencil. City and county crews knew today would be a busy one mapping out the cleanup.
“We prioritize actual blockages to make sure people can move throughout the city. Obviously, there’s a tree behind us that’s on top of a power line and we cannot deal with that until NorthWestern Energy comes in and confirms that the power line is de-energized," Missoula Conservation Lands Manager Jeff Gicklhorn said.
"And then certainly where there’s a risk to human health where it’s blocking access to sidewalks and streets. Those are our priorities, and then we take care of everything else after that, " he continued.
Broken trees formed a canopy over David Gray's house and he knew after Wednesday night, there would be a mess to clean up.
"My wife had just come in as it started. She said it was like a tornado where you hear that wall of roaring. And we got into the house and it was just slamming on the windows," Gray recalled. "We could hear branches and stuff breaking and trees breaking.
Shelby French’s tree fell over into her neighbor's house taking out the fence. It's a mess it could always be worse, "everybody’s safe, it’s just things so, it can be fixed.
In true Missoula fashion, people came together to help because very few of us escaped Mother Nature’s wrath.
"It is a huge inconvenience. I think we’re going to be lucky because the weather won’t be as hot today so that will help out a lot. And you know, if you keep in mind that the majority of our neighbors are all going through the same thing and everyone’s kind of pitching in, that’s makes a big difference when it comes to attitude," homeowner Jannette McDonald said. "Not much you can do, pitch right in and help out and everyone will get it taken care of."
