City of Missoula holds press conference on July 24th windstorm recovery efforts

MISSOULA — The July 24, 2024, windstorm was one that Missoula will soon not forget.

Trees, powerlines and private property were all damaged during the storm, with tens of thousands of people left without power immediately after.

“Our immediate response focused on public safety, resident assistance, clearing trees, securing infrastructure and supporting Northwestern Energy in power restoration,” said Mayor Andrea Davis.

City officials held a press conference on Friday, to discuss the continuing effort to address the damage after the July 24 wind storm.

“In the very early morning hours, I consulted with Mayor Davis to declare a local emergency. Which is the first step in this long process of determining eligibility for federal assistance” explained Missoula County Office of Emergency Management Director Adriane Beck.

The estimated total damage from the wind storm is expected to be around $4.5 million, although an exact number is not yet known.

Up to 75% of that cost may be covered by federal agencies such as FEMA. A federal disaster was declared through the governor on August 23 to make this possible.

The money would be reimbursed to the city afterward and it will not be directly available to private individuals. FEMA will cover the larger damages done.

The city gave the example of a car accident for this, an insurance company would pay for the replacement of a bumper but wouldn’t pay to have it painted.

The city has to follow the specific guidelines that FEMA has in place, documenting damage as well as how funds are currently being spent. The city will have to put up 25% of the cost, but matching funds may be able to help with this.

“It was very obvious in those early morning hours that the scale and scope of this storm would be more than what we would normally have the capacity or the resources to deal with on our own,” said Beck.

So far, 5,000 cubic yards of debris has been collected and 30,000 public trees have been inspected.

There was not one species of tree that suffered the most from the storm. It largely came down to how the trees were planted, the age of the tree and most importantly the root structure of the tree.

Over the next month, the city will address 6,000 tree hazards along streets and remove 600 trees. The city will be attempting to address all of the hazards within 90 days.

“[There is] a colossal amount of pending risk and liability that needs to be addressed in a very short order,” said Missoula Ecosystems Services Associate Director Morgan Valliant.

The city has already removed 200 trees, mainly from roads and private property.

Moving forward, residents can expect to see arborists move street by street across the city addressing the damaged trees. The damage to the trees regards hanging branches and structural cracks within the trunks of trees.

The city has tagged all the trees that need work done, with a yellow tag representing that a tree has a hanging/broken branch and an orange or red tag with the city’s logo representing that the tree will be removed.

City officials are asking residents who have already taken care of damaged trees on their own to notify them so they can update their maps.

Residents will be given 24 hours notice of when the work will be done via physical signage.

“It’s going to operate similar to leaf pick up or street sweeping. There is a clause in the contract that whichever contractor is selected for each individual geographic area provide 24 hours notice, and that will be physical signage” said City of Missoula Urban Forestry Program Manager Ben Carson.

On top of this, a map will soon be publicly available at missoulaparks.org/storm for residents to use, with the map showing every tree in the city that has damage.