KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With chainsaws in hand, crews with the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department did not waste any time.
From one tree to the next, block after block, they removed debris from the streets.
"We've seen a lot of split trees, a lot of trees in the roads, [which is] our first concern," said Mike Overcash, a forester with the city's Parks and Recreation Department.
The city's 24-person crew and 12 contractors worked around the clock Thursday, cleaning up after Wednesday's storm.
The southern portion of the city hit the worse.
On average, the department receives six call requests each day. Wednesday night, crews received more than 30 requests.
"Every 10, 15 minutes a new call comes in, "said Overcash.
One of the calls came from Edgar Lajenuesse, whose tree split during the storm.
Half of the branches cracked onto his driveway and into the street. Crews removed the debris and cut down the rest of the tree Thursday.
"It reminded me of a couple of years ago when we had our microburst over here," said Lajenuesse.
Crews prioritized removing trees on the road. They picked the locations based off of 311 calls and looked around the neighborhood, too.
The city, according to Overcash, is responsible for trees between the curb and sidewalk as well as trees within 10 to 12 feet of the curb.
To request debris be removed from the storm, call 311.
