TYLER (KYTX) - From power outages to property damage people are still recovering and cleaning up after Saturday's storm knocked down trees and limbs. CBS 19's Amanda Roberson has more on why last year's drought can be blamed for a lot of the damage.
"I enjoy them, but I certainly have respect for them and I won't have a big tree like that by the house again," explained homeowner Nancy Smith as crews worked a second full day to cut down an oak tree that fell through her Tyler home during Saturday night's storm. Fortunately, she was in a different room when it crashed into the kitchen/ living room.
"I'm not an expert on trees," Smith said. "I had heard that after the drought the effects were going to be felt for several years. I don't have any idea if this had anything to do with that."
Daniel Duncum with the Texas Forest Service said it does. "We're still experiencing problems with trees from last years drought. We'll continue to see those problems for the next three years."
Three years for trees to get fully hydrated again.
"Even though we had a wet spring, the wood is very dry, it's very brittle," Duncum added.
While people should water their trees every day or every other day to keep hydrating them, Duncum said some of the damage with this seasons storms is unavoidable. "Leaves on the tree are going to give a lot of wind resistance. That's just going to happen, so once we get the erratic winds we get with these downdraft bursts with these afternoon storms, we're going to get breakage."
Breakage that's turning into big bucks and repair for Smith. "Hopefully I can put a tarp on it before it rains again because it'll be full of rain."
And limb by limb, cleaning up what a strong summer storm brought down.
"It'll be like putting humpty dumpty back together I feel like," said Smith. "But it will get done just little by little."
Because limbs are brittle, the Forest Service said after a storm, take a look at your trees major limbs and look for horizontal cracks. The cracks can be hard to see but they're the sign of limb failure potential.
