Hello, Yupette,
We had a pretty significant destruction of the tree canopy here in Fairlington when the thunderstorm went through yesterday. We have been after the County to trim street trees to reduce the wind load for years. Nothing has been done. Hundreds of County workers wre driving around in trucks surveying the damage and some trees were removed. Power was out for most of Fairlington last evening. It's going to cost a lot more repairing the damage than it ever would have cost to have maintained the street trees.
fairgrrl
47 comments:
The County Board was told last year that Fairlington's street trees needed to maintained during the walking town meeting.
trees are not a priority in fairlington, my condo association spends tree maintenance money on pool parties.
Appeared that hundreds of County employees were up here last night surveying the damage. How much did that cost?
They won't spend a dime on tree maintenance. Will spend millions cleaning up the damage after a severe storm. Last winter it was pine trees that had never been trimmed in 35 years that snapped from being overloaded with snow.
Forget it -- the lords need the money for Chri$ Zimmerman's trolley and Jay Fi$$ette's "world class" natatorium -- basic services will be a long time coming when tax revenues can be spent on developer vanity projects and out-of-the-way Long Park instead.
If you can't see daylight through the tree the tree is in danger of being uprooted or losing lots of branches.
A comprehensive tree maintenance program could have prevented 90% of the damage.
Watch the Sun Gazette next Monday. McCaffrey will give the County a thumbs up for cleaning up a storm disaster mess that could and should have been prevented.
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Were the trees actually county property, or are they the condo association's? I believe the latter. The only trees the county has responsibility for pruning are in the parks.
For the cost of all the food that gets spoiled when power goes off for 24 hours the County could hire a couple more tree crews that do nothing but maintain the County's street trees.
Most of the trees that were damaged in Fairlington were / are street trees and the County has a massive public works presence here removing tree limbs and entire trees today.
Things are much worse across Quaker Lane in Alexandria. Power has been off for over 24 hours and lots of really big trees are down.
All the condos in Fairlington have underground power lines; loss of power is caused by trees on the arterials taking down the high voltage power lines that serve the large distribution transformers.
Transformers on poles and on the ground were blowing up all over Arlington yesterday.
The same storm activity will occur somewhere along the Potomac Valley next week when the temp reaches 95 and a cold front drops down from the West Northwest.
We are getting the worst weather in the NE and SE USA when hot air meets cool air, last winter it was bad snow, this summer it's bad thunder storms.
It's worse than I thought. Trees that lost big limbs look terrible. Now what? Let them "regenerate" branches or take them down? I doubt the County will spend money to replace them, because it has to come up with $150 million for Fisette's aquatic center and another $150 million for Zimmerman's trolley.
I age with XXX. Looks like another line of severe thunderstorms will develop somewhere in the area next week, after the temp is in the mid-90's for several days.
McCaffrey is too busy writing real estate ad copy for McMansions im Middleburg to care about what's occurring in his own neighborhood.
Where were / are the 'first responders'? Power was off here all night after the storm passed and I think it may still be off in Alexandria. We can't take care of our own neighbors after a severe storm hits but are all over the world caring for everyone else. We could not even go to the fire station, it was locked and the fire fighters were somewhere else.
It's Saturday and it appears that Arlington's entire Public Works Department is here in Fairlington removing tree limbs.
Plenty of money for overtime for emergencies. No money in the budget for tree maintenance.
Alexandria brought in tree crews and power line crews from all over the NE to restore power. But power was still our in many Alexandria neighborhoods as of Noon on Saturday.
Tree canopy, what tree canopy? Fairlington's "treescape" is a G-D disaster...
Where's Scotty? Not reporting the storm damage to his own community. He's going after the Post for endorsing Fenty. L O L
But what is the difference between Fenty and Fi$$ette? Both want everyone who doesn't earn $100,000+ out of DC and Arlington.
I am going to call Environmental Services on Monday and ask how much all this overtime for "storm damage mitigation" will cost us.
Is DES keeping track of all the overtime expended on the cleanup in Fairlington? I would like to know how much this preventable emergency will cost the taxpayers.
Looks like the same weather pattern setting up for severe thunderstorms on Wednesday.
Looks like the storm cost about $300,000 in public works overtime in South Arlington.
$300K is a small price to pay for the free firewood I was able to scarf up. Thanks to all who contributed!
Another $300K or more for DES cleanup overtime this weekend? Maybe if there's another big storm the CERTs and First Responders will show up.
Yupette, Arlington County Fair is coming up next week.
Which pig race will you be attending, the oval on the Midway where the piglets compete, or inside on the gym track where ACDC campaigners will be slurping for votes?
So nice of Scotty and the developers to sponsor the event so ACDC and the political machinery it installed in the County government can get all that space for free (while ordinary blokes trying to make a buck have to pay for space).
At the County Fair I will be looking for a group that's politically savvy obtaining signatures on a petition to establish election districts (and nothing else).
Regarding Mr. McCaffrey, based on what he publishes in his own Sun Gazette blog it would be best for Arlington if he were promoted or transferred to be an editor of a newspaper or newspapers elsewhere.
McCaffrey is up to his old stunts, giving Zimmerman a Thumbs Up for near-perfect attendance at WMATA Board meetings (where critical safety needs were ignored in favor of cosmetic make-overs) while ignoring Mike Kelly.
So, where is the next line of severe thunderstorms going to hit when the front comes through tomorrow or Thursday?
I am sure that if a severe thunderstorm strikes Douglas Park and uproots trees, knocks out power, etc., the Red Cross, National Guard, Certs, and First Responders will arrive about the time the rain stops.
LBF, while you're at the County Fair why don't you and your buds tell McCaffrey that you toss his paper in the recycle bin when it arrives because it's just a bunch of propaganda for the gentrify-out-the-middle-class developers and the county board?
Mr. McCaffrey may have done us all a favor when he highlighted Zimmerman's Metro service. Zimmerman wants his Metro record so far in the rear view mirror that it looks like vinyl or an 8-track tape. Instead of his ususal gig running as Mr. Public Transportation Zimmerman's presenting himself as the snow exterminator -- heck of a platform to put out there is July and August.
I'll be more than happy to sign that petition. I like that the Republicans and Greens jointly supported the last petition drive -- looking for more cooperation on matters of common interest in the future.
McCaffrey is earning big $$$ writing real estate and special interest supplements (like for the County Fair). So he wants to keep the gravy train rolling by helping the County Board brainwash the sheeple
I would not be surprised if a severe thunderstorn struck Arlington this afternoon or this evening. Temp will be 98 today and 85 tomorrow.
McCaffrey is another nanny, like the County Board and the civic associations. He won't say anything about the terrible street lighting, bad streets, and street trees that came down last week in his own neighborhood because they had never been maintained. He will, however, aid and abet the other nannies in micro-managing every aspect of your life.
Why is McCaffrey mad at the Post? Because the Fairfax Times (which competes with the Sun Gazette in Fairfax County) is owned by the Post and is taking circulation from the SG in a major way.
No comparison - Fairfax Times is a local newspaper. Sun Gazette is a high school newspaper.
Montgomery County got hit hard by a storm this morning.
XXX you were right.
I hope we don't get a line of severe storms moving through Arlington this afternoon. I live off Military Rd and looked like we were going to get really slammed this morning but the storm hit hard across the river.
Looks like upper 16th Street around the Zoo got hit hard too.
More severe storms moving through this afternoon....
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