SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Three days after the New Year's Eve storm, downed trees continue to be a major issue across the area.
Sacramento County says people are working around the clock to clear those trees. Dozens of those downed trees and damage from them can be spotted from Sacramento's Pocket neighborhood.
In the meantime, neighbors are helping neighbors.
"It could've killed, you know, these people are all old and they couldn't have gotten out of the way," said Jeff Husk, a neighbor in Arden.
Husk is helping his neighbors try to clear a gigantic tree blocking the intersection of Yorkshire Road and Bowling Green Road. He says he felt the need to take it upon himself while waiting for it to be removed.
"These people don't have enough money to take care of it. You know, it's expensive to cut trees down nowadays, so I figured I'd help them out," said Husk.
Sacramento County says it's doing everything in its power to clear the trees that it's responsible for. The priority is to clear the roads and the sidewalks.
"As you can imagine, our tree removal crews have been very busy leading up to New Year's Eve when we hadn't any storms yet. They only had about three or four calls. Within just a 24-hour period, they had over 200 calls of downed trees," said Janna Haynes, spokesperson for Sacramento County.
The county says you should call 311 if you see a downed tree, but if the downed tree is on private property, they have to call a private tree removal company.
"They've been methodically working through those requests. Obviously, they have a prioritization based on how busy the road is, how high speeds are. Those roads, they've managed to whittle that list down to just 67 calls that they have not been able to get to," said Haynes.
Before the next storm hits, the county says those crews are working hard to get through the remaining calls.
As they wait, Husk plans to help out while he can for the next few days.
"It's scary and it's a big job really. I mean, bigger than I thought maybe, but it's alright," said Husk.
Regarding downed trees, it is important to note if the tree is touching power lines, SMUD or PG&E will have to respond first and de-energize the power lines before crews can work.
WATCH ALSO:
