Cleanup Underway In Plano After Trees Come Down In Winter Storm
PLANO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - With the ice and snow starting to clear out, on Friday, Feb. 4, the focus was on cleanup for many North Texans.
Ice accumulation plus blustery wind created a bad situation for Jacques and Marie Schoombee's live oak overnight.
"I was outside looking at the roof because there was a noise as well, so I was live action right in front of it as it came down," Jacques Schoombee said.
Their giant tree split and toppled into their neighbor's pool.
"The next morning, Jacques came over, knocked on the door and gave the surprising news yeah that's our trees in your yard," Lisa Buchanan said. "It's a whole tree in a pool so it's pretty significant."
Some of their neighbors also found themselves in similar situations.
As of Friday afternoon, the city of Plano had received 250 reports of fallen trees.
Many of them already in bad shape from last February's winter storm, which damaged more than 7,000 of them.
"There's a lot of older trees, you can see several of them around here," Buchanan said. "Live oaks are pretty sturdy but probably not against the amount of weight they were having to deal with. This seems to be the biggest amount of damage."
They've been told when it comes to cleanup, if downed trees are on private property property, owners are usually responsible.
However, the city will remove any portion blocking sidewalks or streets.
Friday night, electricity delivery company Oncor said as ice on trees begin to thaw, tree branches might abruptly spring up, potentially impacting power lines and causing outages.
If this happens, report it to your power supplier as soon as possible.