City Parks assures residents that trees that fell over during the storm will be removed

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City Parks assesses storm damage So many trees were uprooted or blown over in the storm earlier this week, that City Parks has urged residents to be patient. It is clearing them as fast as possible. December 21, 2006 By Anish Abraham THE fierce thunderstorm that pelted Joburg on the night of 18 December has left City Parks with a big mess to clean up. It has received many calls regarding trees that have fallen over and is appealing to residents to be patient as workers clean up the streets. According to the acting managing director of City Parks, Geoffrey Cooke, over the past two days the agency has received more than 200 requests to help remove uprooted trees. "We are appealing to residents to please be patient while we systematically address concerns," he said. City Parks's priorities are uprooted trees that are obstructing traffic or have caused power outages, and trees that could collapse. Once a complaint is received, the agency sends a team to the site to decide whether immediate action is required or not. Where necessary, the team will take the fallen tree and branches out of the way. A second team will be deployed within 14 days to remove the debris from pavements. "To expedite complaints, the Johannesburg Roads Agency is assisting City Parks in moving fallen trees and branches from the road," Cooke said. According to Jenny Moodley, the spokesperson for City Parks, there are three six-member teams touring the City to assess the problems. Based on their findings, they will either cordon off the areas where the trees have fallen over, or try to move them on to the pavements and away from the roads. One also has to take into consideration that it is the holiday season and only a skeleton crew is at work at City Parks, she says. "But our main worry now is that the weatherman says that was not the last of the storms for now, so we have to expect more such cases in the coming days." To ask for trees that have fallen into the street to be removed, call Joburg Connect on 011 375 5555. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za