What a waste of wood

[iceman]

I spent Saturday with a volunteer crew helping to clean up. The amount of wood down is incredible, as is the risk both from nature and the folks working the clean up.

I drove over an hour to get there - the group I was with was organized through my church (that coordinated with a local church in the area). We arrived and the first question from the local church was "how many saws do you have" followed by "please step forward." Basically we went out organized around those of us with saws (and presumably knowing how to operate them). Objective: Get the material to the curb for pickup. Town/county/whoever was going to have trucks come around to pick up from the road, but debris had to be piled there. Ok... we had our instructions... off we go.

We arrived at our assigned address with myself as the 'saw' and about a half dozen others dressed for work. Homeowner was there and already working with a relative who had a saw but there was plenty left to do. They were lucky really, only minor damage to roof, but the trees behind their house had been snapped off about 10' up, twisted in a pile, then dumped back down in the yard (along with a few other trees?). Yard full of debris mostly oriented in the same direction, but not a nice log load stack as you can imagine. Some hardwoods, but mostly pine trees - "stacked" on their sides and you could see the tension in the bowed limbs supporting the trunks like bicycle stands on the bottoms. You can imagine the interesting jenga game we were playing. Stack was probably 10-12' tall (hard to judge really, but certainly higher than I was going to cut).

To make a long story short(er) - we did get it cut down and hauled to the street. Approach was to limb the trees on the side we could reach using saws and/or axe - leaving the load bearing branches in place. Then tied a rope to the top trunks and pulled what we could to the ground to limb and chunk up to carry away to the street. Once the pile was down we actually did find the remains of the trunks inside and were able to limb and cut those down too.

End of the day we cleared that back yard almost completely. We also had some other volunteers show up so at one point I think we had close to a dozen folks streaming through carrying debris out by hand and wheelbarrow. With three cutters and others with clippers we kept the draggers busy. Bottom line - it is amazing what can be done with a hard working group - despite some periods of heavy rain (btw, rain soaked gloves can cause the axe to fly out of your hand... oops!). NO serious injuries the entire day - some blisters, but nothing else.

One small part done - need to do it a few hundred more times before mission is accomplished though.... so much more to do.

Anyway, all this to say, there is a LOT of wood on the curbs. I can tell you that if you were to drive down the road and pull chunks out and load your truck nobody would stop you. Then again, perhaps you could consider bringing your saw and spending a day or two helping folks clean up... then go home filled with a warm feeling that goes a step beyond just cutting your own wood... even if you don't fill your truck in the process.

Thank you so much on behalf of those that u helped. They can't thank you enough!

And yes people want you to take the wood especially when you have helped them..

 

[Bspring]

I lived in North MS when Katrina hit so I was fine but my brother was on the coast. I took 55 gallons of gas and 55 gallons of water, a generator and my saws with me. He had several large trees on his roof but could not tell how bad the damage was. He is the type that should stay away from sharp objects and tells me that more people were injured from chainsaws than the storm. Anyway, my wife and I went down there and spent 2 days cutting and moving all his wood to the road and helped some of his neighbors also. There was so much wood pilled up and down his street that it was mostly a one lane road. I can't imagine anyone not being able to get firewood if they wanted it. There were mountains of it on every street curb. I know people complained about how that whole process was handled but from what little that I saw I was impressed with how fast they got most areas cleaned up. His roof had no holes in it. I could not belive it. there were so many trees on it that in places you could not see the roof. He took us by the house he had moved from 6 months eairler and it was just a concret slab. I am a big beliver in brick homes after seeing what a difference it made down there.

 

[Intheswamp]

I lived in North MS when Katrina hit so I was fine but my brother was on the coast. I took 55 gallons of gas and 55 gallons of water, a generator and my saws with me. He had several large trees on his roof but could not tell how bad the damage was. He is the type that should stay away from sharp objects and tells me that more people were injured from chainsaws than the storm. Anyway, my wife and I went down there and spent 2 days cutting and moving all his wood to the road and helped some of his neighbors also. There was so much wood pilled up and down his street that it was mostly a one lane road. I can't imagine anyone not being able to get firewood if they wanted it. There were mountains of it on every street curb. I know people complained about how that whole process was handled but from what little that I saw I was impressed with how fast they got most areas cleaned up. His roof had no holes in it. I could not belive it. there were so many trees on it that in places you could not see the roof. He took us by the house he had moved from 6 months eairler and it was just a concret slab. I am a big beliver in brick homes after seeing what a difference it made down there.

When hurricane Opal hit us it took off the 2/3rds of the east part of the roof on one of our warehouses. The only reason it didn't take off anymore of that side was because several pecan trees held the tin down.

As for brick structures in hurricanes, yes they do fairly well...not so good in earthquakes, though.

Ed

 

[Slow1]

I hear you on the danger of folks with saws in these situations. Well meaning people can do a lot of damage. On my site there were three saws and I was the only one with PPE. The worst offender in the safety realm was the guy with what looked like a brand new out of the box Stihl saw who tossed and swung that bar around like it was a no concern at all. At one point he dove into a log not seeming to notice the smoke billowing from his chain.. or the oil flowing down the saw onto his leg, the bar oil cap dangling to the side, or my yelling for him to stop cutting. Oh well.... everyone gave him a wide arc of space and nobody was injured except perhaps that poor saw that was run hard and likely put away wet. At least the other saw on the scene was safer and willing to take suggestions/work together in a coordinated manner.

I have to wonder how many people rush out and buy a saw to help out only to end up hurting themselves or others in these situations. Frankly I am VERY thankful that I was able to learn my saw first on logs laying on the ground, then working a pile of logs, then this mess of... junk. Totally different scenes but quite a learning curve and the experience I have gained over the last two years has helped tremendously and I'm sure taught me skills (and respect) that I need to be a safer contributor. Not to mention having a collection of PPE - sawing a log on the ground the helmet looks a bit odd, on the scene Saturday the helmet looked totally appropriate and caught more than one branch and flying chunk of who knows what.

 

[raybonz]

I spent Saturday with a volunteer crew helping to clean up. The amount of wood down is incredible, as is the risk both from nature and the folks working the clean up.

I drove over an hour to get there - the group I was with was organized through my church (that coordinated with a local church in the area). We arrived and the first question from the local church was "how many saws do you have" followed by "please step forward." Basically we went out organized around those of us with saws (and presumably knowing how to operate them). Objective: Get the material to the curb for pickup. Town/county/whoever was going to have trucks come around to pick up from the road, but debris had to be piled there. Ok... we had our instructions... off we go.

We arrived at our assigned address with myself as the 'saw' and about a half dozen others dressed for work. Homeowner was there and already working with a relative who had a saw but there was plenty left to do. They were lucky really, only minor damage to roof, but the trees behind their house had been snapped off about 10' up, twisted in a pile, then dumped back down in the yard (along with a few other trees?). Yard full of debris mostly oriented in the same direction, but not a nice log load stack as you can imagine. Some hardwoods, but mostly pine trees - "stacked" on their sides and you could see the tension in the bowed limbs supporting the trunks like bicycle stands on the bottoms. You can imagine the interesting jenga game we were playing. Stack was probably 10-12' tall (hard to judge really, but certainly higher than I was going to cut).

To make a long story short(er) - we did get it cut down and hauled to the street. Approach was to limb the trees on the side we could reach using saws and/or axe - leaving the load bearing branches in place. Then tied a rope to the top trunks and pulled what we could to the ground to limb and chunk up to carry away to the street. Once the pile was down we actually did find the remains of the trunks inside and were able to limb and cut those down too.

End of the day we cleared that back yard almost completely. We also had some other volunteers show up so at one point I think we had close to a dozen folks streaming through carrying debris out by hand and wheelbarrow. With three cutters and others with clippers we kept the draggers busy. Bottom line - it is amazing what can be done with a hard working group - despite some periods of heavy rain (btw, rain soaked gloves can cause the axe to fly out of your hand... oops!). NO serious injuries the entire day - some blisters, but nothing else.

One small part done - need to do it a few hundred more times before mission is accomplished though.... so much more to do.

Anyway, all this to say, there is a LOT of wood on the curbs. I can tell you that if you were to drive down the road and pull chunks out and load your truck nobody would stop you. Then again, perhaps you could consider bringing your saw and spending a day or two helping folks clean up... then go home filled with a warm feeling that goes a step beyond just cutting your own wood... even if you don't fill your truck in the process.

WTG Slowman!

Ray

 

[Tansao]

I am a responder with MassDEP and a wood scrounger myself. While the want for volunteering is helpful and appreciated by the incident commanders (Fire Chiefs) as well as the homeowners, etc. It is the IC that is responsible for everything that happens during the incident. So, if folks come in and start losing limbs or getting crushed because they were bucking a large dia tree hardwood tree at the bottom of the pile of pine, the incident now turns into a medical emergency diverting the recovery efforts. And the question comes to the Fire Chief or designee about scene security and illness or death during his watch. Looting has been seen, unfortunately, too.

I will say it is sad to see all the wood go to waste. To see a 3-4' diameter circular sawblade mounted on a heavy excavator arm clearing the side of a clogged river was astounding! That thing cut through 2' diameter trunk in the blink of an eye.

 

[JoeCt]

Glad you're ok. It was nasty there to say the least. That's the government for you, spend your money chipping up all the heat. They only do that because they haven't found a way to tax you on free fire wood yet.

 

[Slow1]

Glad you're ok. It was nasty there to say the least. That's the government for you, spend your money chipping up all the heat. They only do that because they haven't found a way to tax you on free fire wood yet.

By all accounts I'm a grade-A cynic, but you have to actually be there to appreciate the situation. I didn't come home with a full truck; rather kept to the priority of getting the mess cleaned up - far more junk than burning wood there. If I went in looking to cut wood and leave the rest that would have been a far greater shame. Sure, one could say "I'll be sure and put the brush on the curb" but that just wouldn't be right either somehow.

Now take that up a few notches to the local/city/state agencies - they have a priority to restore services and safety for all the people who live/work/use the area. Wood burning is pretty near the bottom of that priority order. Face it - chipping the wood an hauling it out is about the most efficient way of removing everything from the area. It is not a matter of trying to keep the wood away from burners, it is just a matter of getting things back to normal as fast and safely as possible. Looking at that area and having been on an ambulance a few times (not as a patient thankfully) I can tell you it is not a good scene for emergency responders right now. Just imagine if somehow a major fire were to break out!

 

[iceman]

Glad you're ok. It was nasty there to say the least. That's the government for you, spend your money chipping up all the heat. They only do that because they haven't found a way to tax you on free fire wood yet.

By all accounts I'm a grade-A cynic, but you have to actually be there to appreciate the situation. I didn't come home with a full truck; rather kept to the priority of getting the mess cleaned up - far more junk than burning wood there. If I went in looking to cut wood and leave the rest that would have been a far greater shame. Sure, one could say "I'll be sure and put the brush on the curb" but that just wouldn't be right either somehow.

Now take that up a few notches to the local/city/state agencies - they have a priority to restore services and safety for all the people who live/work/use the area. Wood burning is pretty near the bottom of that priority order. Face it - chipping the wood an hauling it out is about the most efficient way of removing everything from the area. It is not a matter of trying to keep the wood away from burners, it is just a matter of getting things back to normal as fast and safely as possible. Looking at that area and having been on an ambulance a few times (not as a patient thankfully) I can tell you it is not a good scene for emergency responders right now. Just imagine if somehow a major fire were to break out!

X2
We are addicted to wood here .... So its different for us... (thought process)
But being here and having so many friends who were hit hard .... I am just now thinking about asking people for wood ...
like you I am/was involved from a professional end. I try to get wood burners wood when I can from this ..but its not my first or the others first.priorty. as there would be liability if some went wrong