SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — On a good day, the sun shines in California’s capital city, and elms, pines, oaks and hundreds of other varieties of trees fill Sacramento’s parks and streets, strengthening the city’s reputation as the “City of Trees”. .”
But in a bad one, violent winds blow down some of the trees, causing damage to cars, houses, and power lines.
That is what has happened in recent weeks as the defining feature that is normally considered an asset to the city has given way to destruction and disruption as manifold.”atmospheric riversripped through Northern California bringing high winds and rain.
Wind gusts reached more than 60 miles per hour on Sunday, strong enough to uproot massive trees, crash into homes, topple cars and even rip out concrete sidewalks. And as climate change continues to fuel the drought in californiatrees are left weakened and more likely to be uprooted as they battle saturated soil and unrelenting winds.
Climate change and natural disasters have damaged other treetops across the country, such as Hurricane Katrina, which downed 10 percent of New Orleans’ trees in 2005. In more recent years, warmer, drier weather has caused that Seattle and Portland, Oregon. , to lose tree cover. A rare storm known as a derecho swept through Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the summer of 2021, taking many trees with it.
More than 1,000 trees have fallen in Sacramento since the New Year’s Eve storm, said Gabby Miller, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Public Works. On Wednesday, city rangers were still determining the full scale of the latest tree collapse. Trees remained scattered over sidewalks and driveways, some with yellow caution tape haphazardly hung over them or not at all, causing at least one accident. Some homeowners and apartment dwellers were anxiously awaiting cranes and chainsaws to remove trees that fell on or inside their homes.
The destructiveness of the weekend storm was on full display when Niki Goffard and her boyfriend were asleep early Sunday morning when a branch struck their home, less than a mile from the state Capitol. They looked outside and saw two trees swaying from side to side.
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They debated whether to stay in the house or leave. Then they heard a crash.
“Before we could make a decision, both trees fell, one at our house and one at our neighbor’s house,” Goffard said Monday.
Part of the ceiling above her bedroom collapsed and fell on top of Goffard’s boyfriend, causing some minor scratches and bruises. They had to stay at a nearby hotel while they waited for word from their insurance company.
More than 1,000 trees have fallen in Sacramento since the New Year’s Eve storm, said Gabby Miller, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Public Works.
“You never think something like this is going to happen to you,” Goffard said. “It has been quite shocking and traumatizing.”
In a park surrounding the state capitol that serves as an open-air museum of the state’s flora with 400 varieties of plants and trees, the storm toppled a huge pine tree on the side of the road and the wind smashed fruit from the trees and the pavement. Afterward, the scent of oranges wafted through the air.
Sacramento is located at the confluence of two rivers, the American and the Sacramento. During the 19th century, as officials grappled with the risk of flooding, the city built a levee and placed trees on top in a failed attempt to increase its stability, said city historian Marcia Eymann.
The city’s trees help cool temperatures during hot, sweltering summers, but they also help control flooding. Tree roots absorb water, and much of the rainwater that falls on their leaves evaporates, the Environmental Protection Agency indicated.
“They are the natural shade and umbrellas for the city,” Eymann said.
Trees being blown over by high winds and wet conditions in Sacramento are nothing new. In the 1990s, Northern California was devastated by floods, tsunamis and earthquakes, Eymann said.
“We’ve had one natural disaster after another, but we always rebuild and we always come back,” he said.
Crews from the city’s Department of Public Works continue to clean up, focusing first on trees that fell on homes and power lines, Miller said.
“Everyone who may be working right now is working,” Miller said of the cleanup process.
The city typically receives around 500 tree service calls per month. In the week after New Year’s Eve, there were as many as 700, with the city responding to about a third of them last Friday, Miller said. In the last few days, they have received more than 400 new calls, he said.
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District removed more than 300 trees or branches since New Year’s Eve, many of which fell on power lines and electrical equipment, company spokesman Gamaliel Ortiz said.
California State Sen. Angelique Ashby, who represents the city, said recent storms have highlighted the need to be careful with planting trees to limit injuries.
“We’ve gotten so much benefit from those beautiful big trees in Sacramento that this is at risk of being ‘Tree City,’” he said.
Associated Press writers Adam Beam and Terry Chea in Sacramento contributed to this report.