How to take care of trees after storm damage

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Siouxland has seen some storm damage from Monday night’s weather, but some may not know what to do when the damage is on their front lawn.

Picking up small branches and debris can be done in one day, but some damage may need a few days to clear out.

“This will be a three to four day project,” Jeff’s Tree Services’ Johnathan Keselring said about damage to a home on Morningside Avenue. “Basically we’ll get the tree off the house today and then we’ll have to come back, and because of the size of the tree, come back, split it up so we can get it loaded on a truck and get it out of here.”

There’s not much a homeowner can do when it comes to storm damage, but being proactive can help when the next storm comes through.

“The biggest thing is before a storm comes in you should probably check with your insurance company to make sure you do have coverage for stuff like this because you never know what can happen,” Keselring said. “Especially in this area of Morningside, there’s a lot of older trees and stuff like that, so they should get them inspected.”

If a tree looks a little shaky, getting it looked at can be the key to surviving the next storm.

“A lot of times, just trimming up a tree and getting trimmed up properly will help you prevent a lot of this stuff from happening,” Keselring said.

And for the residents of South Sioux City, those smaller branches on the front lawn have their own special pick-up .

“When we do have heavy wind damage and a lot of limbs down, we do ask people to take their limbs out by the curbside, we’ll pick them up,” South Sioux City city administrator Lance Hedquist said. “They have to be cut up so they’re manageable by our staff.”

Cutting those loose branches down to four feet to be picked up will help keep the neighborhoods clean of debris.

“It’s a great service that the city provides for the citizens of this community,” Hedquist said. “We don’t want the trees hanging around, and by doing it as a group, it works much more manageable for everybody.”

South Sioux City will start picking up branch bundles on Thursday.

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