The power is back on, but the trees are still down.
By Thursday morning, just 200 Saratoga County homes were without power, giving many people their first opportunity to deal with the havoc wreaked outdoors by Monday’s ice storm.
The sun was shining, but with temperatures refusing to budge, tree limbs continued to carry their heavy cargo of inch-thick ice. Lawns remained beautiful, but treacherous icy carpets, and fallen branches were nearly frozen into the ground. The whir of chainsaws replaced the sound of snapping branches, as municipal and private crews Thursday made their way from one clean-up project to the next. Many side roads were closed to traffic while broken trees were cut and carried away.
We’ve been out here working since Monday, said Robert Aschmutat, a crew member for the town of Ballston’s Highway Department.
The crew was removing a fallen tree on Martin Avenue in Ballston Spa, which narrowly missed crashing on a house behind it.
`Fortunately we’re seeing mainly old, rotting trees and pines that fell, so they didn’t go down with that much force,` said Aschmutat. `But it’s incredible what’s out there.`
Any trees lying on municipal property will be removed by the towns, but on private land, homeowners are responsible for getting their debris to the curb.
`We’ll be picking up anything people put out,` said Patty Bowers, village clerk in Ballston Spa. `People are resigned to the fact they have a lot of work to do.`
In the town of Malta, which sustained the worst of the damage, highway crews had already done their collecting at homes in the northern end of town by Thursday morning, and will complete the southern end in the next day or so.
`We’ve been so busy; it’s such a mess out there,` said Sue Dellaporta of the Malta Highway Department. `I haven’t had a chance to even think about cleaning up the branches from my own yard.`
Clifton Park highway crews rolled out Wednesday and will continue using chainsaws and chippers to manage the debris removal throughout this week and next, scheduled to end Friday, Jan. 26. Meanwhile, officials throughout the county praised the efforts of the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) that moved into action Monday to assist residents.
In Clifton Park, about 45 senior citizens and town residents of all ages with medical needs received a personal phone call through the `RUOK` program, in which people pre-register to receive calls checking their safety during times of emergency.
Barbara McHugh, community development officer for the town of Clifton Park, said the program worked well during the storm.
In Malta, volunteers also stepped up to the plate.
`All the CERT members are volunteers, and their good training came through,` said Audrey Ball, director of the town of Malta Community Center.
The community center opened Monday night as a warming shelter, providing hot soup and coffee, light meals, potable water and cots to sleep on in meeting rooms.
Many residents took advantage of the chance to warm up, bringing their pets in as well to ward off the chill.
CERT volunteers manned the warming shelter 24 hours a day through Wednesday at 8 p.m.
`It worked very smoothly,` said Ball. `We want to get the word out that we’re here in any emergency. But we hope this never happens again.`
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