First wave of El Nino storms caused minimal damage; sandbag locations increased

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The thunderstorm cells that passed through the City last week brought periods of heavy rain and strong gusting winds but no significant damage to report.

While there was some localized street flooding and larege amounts of debris on streets and sidewalks, the largest casualty was an Aleppo Pine tree in Wilson Park that was damaged.

The pine tree, in excess of 50 feet in height with multiple large trunks, split in half, damaging another tree as it fell and narrowly missing the park restroom. Fortunately there were no patrons in the park at the time and no structural damage to any park facilities resulted.

Public Services staff determined the tree to be unsafe and was subsequently removed. The remaining damaged tree will be further evaluated and removed if determined to be a potential risk in the future. There were also a number of private trees which fell at various parts of the City, all of which have been removed by the respective property owners.

In addition, Public Services added two new locations for residents along with Fire Station No. 4  to get sandbags, one at City Hall and another at Lions Park.

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These locations will be available 24/7 to the public. These two additional locations have the advantage of being lighted for safe 24 hour access; allow for pull through traffic circulation to ease congestion and easy access for dump truck supplying sand; are adjacent to city facilities to support potential volunteers providing assistance to citizens; and are non-flood prone or high traffic areas to reduce likelihood of not being able to access the sites easily.

For more information on sandbags, click here.