Nearly 700 trees came crashing down in Winnipeg this weekend as a result of some wicked winds.
On Monday, city crews were out with aerial lifts and wood chippers to clean up leftover trees and branches that had fallen, and some that may do so soon.
Crews pulled down a standing tree outside Christine Natividad’s home on Monday.
"Me and my baby are in the living room, and suddenly she screams out loud and when I look outside, the big branches of the tree fell,” said Natividad. “Maybe it's because of the strong blow of the wind."
In some areas of the city, wind gusts completely snapped or uprooted large trees, falling onto homes and cars, injuring people.
Manitoba Public Insurance says it's received 100 claims of vehicle damage so far.
Ram Tiodin, nursery manager at Lacoste Garden Centre, says the best way to avoid any more is to check the trees left standing.
"You're going to want to see if there's any kind of stress on the bark, where it looks like it was trying to crack, or it's trying to snap in half," Tiodin said.
He says the same cracking can also take place where branches connect to the trunk, causing limbs to fall more easily, and that mature trees are susceptible to being completely uprooted by wind when coupled with heavy rainfall.
"Even light wind slowly starts to rock the tree back and forth and cause it to lean over. Eventually a very strong wind will make it kind of uproot or snap in a weak spot of the trunk,” Tiodin said.
Depending on how damaged the tree is, some can be saved by using a wooden or metal stake to support the tree underneath its lowest branches. But loosened anchoring roots will never be the same again.
The city also reminds people not to collect elm wood that has fallen or cut up. It is illegal to store elm wood. All elm wood from this event must be disposed of by taking it to Brady Landfill or it can be chipped.
