BILLINGS — A chorus of chainsaws filled the air in Billings Wednesday as the clean-up from Tuesday's storm continued throughout the day.
Crews just finished removing a tree that fell on Alderson Avenue near Fifth Street West on Wednesday.
“I always park my car by that tree, and it totally just crushed on both,” said Lily Heggs.
Hegg’s car and her boyfriend's vehicle were both hit by the same falling tree Tuesday that was across the street from where they live.
They were still processing what happened while awaiting a green light from their insurance companies.
“It was stressful,” Hegg said. “I came out here, I was screaming, I was really upset.”
Hegg says it’s unclear when insurance money will get to her for another car, but she may be able to borrow a relative’s vehicle.
And on Wicks Lane in the Heights, it was a similar scene as the city was busy cleaning debris left on the streets and sidewalks.
“The sweepers will be out cleaning up the road,” said Austin Saunders, city of Billings Street & Traffic worker. “And then over at our yard, we'll have guys chipping all the branches and stuff like that too.”
The city workers’ effort was big for the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses on Wicks Lane for members, who were cleaning up the church property.
“They said they were clearing the sidewalks, which we thought this was going to be an all-day job,” said Susan McClain, a Kingdom Hall member. “But instead it's just a few minutes because they came and helped so much. It was awesome.”
And out on Lake Elmo Drive, tree removal businesses were busy. Saunders used to help his dad run a tree company in Utah.
“Tree companies, this is their prime right now,” Saunders said. “When windstorms come like this, this is where they make a lot of their money.
An estimated 100-year-old tree knocked down power lines on Tuesday.
“It's very impressive,” said Ethan Starr, of the force of the wind that knocked down the tree. "The wind's a monster, so never know what the wind will do.”
One of the residents says the lights came back at around 2 a.m.
“Still have got some of the poles from the old power line still laying around, but I didn't expect that to go away too quickly,” said Nate Simenson, who lives across the street from where the tree fell on the lines. “It's pretty big and heavy, but getting the new ones up and everything running, I thought it would be probably until like tonight it would be done. So being able to wake up in the morning and have my coffee was a wonderful thing.”
Spectrum crews also checked its wire.
“We actually build our stuff to withstand things like this,” said Andrew Wagner, a Spectrum technician. “Obviously, everything has a breaking point, but you just got to take care of it. The internet's pretty important.”
But it could be weeks before all the debris is cleaned up.
“On a scale, if you go to like 100, I'd say maybe 30,” Saunders said about the cleanup from the storm. “It's not too bad. I've seen worse."
