It’s been one week since a powerful, windy El Niño storm swept San Diego County, but crews in some cities, including Santee, are still cleaning up the aftermath.
Workers are busy clearing away trees knocked over in the fierce Jan. 31 wind storm, and removing tree stumps and roots.
“It was the worst wind event the city has ever had,” Annette Saul, the city’s Parks and Landscape supervisor, told NBC 7.
The 50 mph wind gusts knocked down 35 trees and damaged about 20 trees in Santee.
"It's the most trees we've ever lost in one day," said Saul.
Many of the trees that fell were eucalyptus trees, along with some pine trees. Because they're evergreen trees, they have a lot of weight, and can't handle the kind of force the wind storm created.
Saul said most of the trees fell in roadway medians, right of ways and in community parks.
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One tree fell on a family's van in the Walmart parking lot. The parents in the front seat were treated at the hospital for minor injuries. Luckily, the couple's young children in the back seat were uninjured.
The cleanup crews are expected to finish clearing the tree damage in Santee within the next week.
In the spring, Santee will begin replacing every single tree lost in the storm. The new trees will possibly be placed in other areas of the community, and different types may be chosen.
"We'll look at planting more native trees, like oaks and California sycamores. We know those trees do better. We want to make sure we have the right tree, in the right place,” said Saul.
But the fallen trees will also get new life, in the form of recycling, as cleanup crews use special equipment to turn the debris from the chopped up trees into wood chips. Those wood chips will be brought back to the city’s operations center where they will be turned into mulch to be reused around Santee.
The mulch helps to prevent weeds, improve the soil and conserve water. At Town Center Community Park – in the heart of Santee – the mulch is used for the landscape.
The efforts centered around saving and reusing trees is a top priority for the Santee community. In 2001, Santee became one of several cities in San Diego County to earn the designation “Tree City USA.”
"What that means is the city makes trees a priority. So we have an Arbor Day celebration every year called the River Park Festival," said Saul.
To be dubbed a Tree City USA, a community must meet four requirements set by the National Arbor Day Foundation, including creating a public tree care ordinance.
"Santee is deficient in tree cover. So we need more trees in residential parkways. We need more trees along streets. We need more shade. We need to improve our air quality. So we want to keep moving towards that goal. And we don't want to let storm damage stop us from doing that," said Saul.
The city has also to set aside a certain amount of money in its budget to protect and maintain all of its trees.
"That's one of our goals- to keep the tree canopy and to grow the tree canopy," Saul added.
The City of Santee currently has nearly 9,000 trees.
“Just as buildings and roads are assets, the trees are also an asset to the community. The biggest thing is air quality, shade, beautification, enhancing property values," said Saul.
