The storm cleanup in Chilliwack has intensified.
City crews and contractors were focused on cleaning up fallen trees, clearing catch basins and residential streets on Friday, all to prevent localized flooding.
The scale of the 2017 storm damage to Chilliwack trees was “massive” due to freezing rain, according to city officials.
“Many street and park trees have been damaged to the point where they will not survive,” according to the news release. “Arborists will assess the extent of tree damage after storm cleanup is largely completed.”
There were also a number of road closures still in effect due to downed power lines and/or flooding, and the list can be found on City of Chilliwack’s ‘Traffic Notifications‘ page at Chilliwack.com.
Thursday was an exceedingly busy day in Chilliwack. Here are some of the numbers.
On cleanup duty: 64 staff members, 20 contracted staff, 25 units of equipment and 12 contracted machines working. Overnight 30 staff worked a 12 hour shift with 25 units of equipment and eight contracted machines.
Chilliwack Fire Department fielded 150 calls on Thursday, many of which were for downed power lines. They average 200 calls per month typically.
Operations (public works) Department is still getting a lot of calls but they are asking folks to restrict calls to those reporting flooding, or downed trees, or other public works emergencies.
All remaining unplowed roads, “will be done as soon as operationally possible and as resources allow,” said the release.
