GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — Tropical Storm Debby packed a punch as it made its way through the Triad, leaving behind a trail of destruction. The storm uprooted numerous trees, including a massive one at the Guilford County Veterans Memorial Park. This tree, which caused significant damage, crushed benches, flagpoles, and more.
“This is the most damage we've seen to the memorial since it was dedicated in 2002,” said Susan Danielsen, chair of the Guilford County Veterans Memorial Board. “It’s really a lot of damage. That tree is huge, and because it was so tall and so heavy, it impacted so many portions of the grounds.”
The roots of the tree are sticking out of the ground, and Danielsen said she can’t even wrap her head around the extent of the damage. The amount of debris makes it difficult to estimate how much it will cost to fix everything.
“The ground was so saturated that a tree that had been there for probably hundreds of years uprooted and landed right on our memorial. It's really difficult to tell the amount of damage that's there right now,” Danielsen said. “Two of the three flagpoles have been snapped. Several benches have been smashed. There's damage to one of our walls. There's likely damage to some of the displays.”
This kind of damage isn’t new to tree removal experts. Crews like those with Joel’s Tree Service have been cleaning up the Triad all day.
"A lot of stuff. Trees falling on cars, houses, we've had to get a lot of them off,” said Joel Bartley, who owns Joel's Tree Service. “It's been a lot, especially pine trees uprooting out of the ground."
Bartley's crews got to work as soon as they could Thursday afternoon and have been working hard ever since. They saw a tree ripped out of the ground that fell onto a home on Spring Garden Street. Another giant tree was uprooted near Groom Town Road in Guilford County.
Even healthy trees that aren’t rotting are at risk of causing damage. Bartley says rainwater soaks into the ground underneath the trees, making them easy to uproot.
“It’s a lot of water, and it adds a lot of weight to the trees. When it hits, it makes the soil really soft, causing the trees to uproot quickly. If they’re not trimmed properly, the weight on the tree can cause them to fall over,” Bartley said.
As for the cleanup at the Guilford County Veterans Memorial Park, it will have to wait. Volunteers are scheduled to start chopping up the tree on Tuesday.
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