Curtis Killman,
Mike Simons
Tree felling companies large and small spoke of waiting several weeks before they could reach some customers who called on their services after winds nearing 100mph battered Tulsa and surrounding areas early on Father’s Day.
“My ears are bleeding,” Rickert Tree Service & Landscaping office manager Krystle Phelps said when asked Monday morning for an assessment of the post-storm situation.
Phelps said her list of those who called for help because of fallen trees and branches included about 200 names and was getting longer by the minute.
Phelps said responders are currently prioritizing houses that still have trees on them for removal.
“Even that list is getting pretty long,” Phelps said. “It will probably be a week or more before we can remove all of this. A lot of trees on houses make holes in the roofs.”
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Phelps said her company is one of the few that has a crane for big jobs.
“We do as much as we can on a daily basis,” Phelps said.
“Stressful.” This is how Brady Paselk, an arborist and owner of BPTrees.com, described the situation to a journalist Monday morning.
“Like everyone needs help and you have to be the one to tell someone if it’s actually an emergency,” Paselk said. “It might be an emergency for them, but it might not be for me. And not everyone understands that.”
Paselk spoke while working to remove about eight logs that had been blown into a house near 13th Street and Gary Avenue.
Paselk described the work as a risky version of pickup sticks, where the goal was to remove a limb without disturbing others as much as possible.
After completing that work, Paselk said he would send the crew across the street to work on a sycamore.
Paselk, who uses a crane for large jobs, said he decided not to take calls for the time being because he had more than enough work to do for the rest of the week.
“Right now it’s just a week of crane work,” said Paselk.
Allison Emanuel, owner and operations manager of Trees by Jake, said that for the time being they were only working on removing trees that were on houses.
Still, that list alone was enough to keep her busy for three weeks, Emanuel said.
Emanuel said Trees by Jake is one of only a few tree care companies in the state to be certified by the Tree Care Industry Association, a nonprofit organization that supports the tree care industry.
Joey Scott, bureau chief at Chadwick’s Lawn & Landscape, said the worst of the damage appears to be in downtown Tulsa: “It looks like a bomb went off.”
“Lots of trees on houses,” Scott said. “Lots of trees on cars. We take the critical ones first.”
By midmorning, Chadwick’s teams already had about a week’s worth of work to do.
Others repeated that they were inundated with calls from people seeking help with fallen trees.
Phillips Tree Service Removal’s Loard Phillips said he too would prioritize urgent calls first.
“We’re so crowded here that we can’t keep up with demand,” Phillips said. “But we have to get her. We’re going to need a little. We’re just trying to get everyone to be patient.”
Phillips said he expected it would take a couple of weeks before Monday morning to process any calls he’d already received.
None of the contact persons could give an estimate of the costs, as every order depends on a variety of factors.
Meanwhile, Paselk of BP Trees advised residents to be cautious if a tree fell in their yard.
“A lot of people haven’t gone into their yard and actually looked up,” Paselk said.
“You just don’t have to stay under your tree, just walk around it and see what the heck is going on out there because there are a lot of hangers that haven’t fallen off yet,” referring to broken or partially broken branches.
Paselk said he’s had calls to work in the past from those trying it themselves for the first time after breaking ribs or suffering some type of skin puncture.
Paselk had some advice for someone thinking about doing a small tree felling themselves.
“Ladders are an absolute no-go,” said Paselk. “If you think you’re going to use a ladder for this, you should stop.
“You should never stand on a ladder and make a cut. It’s super dangerous,” said Paselk.
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https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/wait-could-be-weeks-for-tree-removal-service/article_a3779142-0ed1-11ee-bed7-b349a47dc7b5.html
