MISSOULA — Missoula experienced tree-mageddon on July 24, 2024, as cars, houses, and roads were covered in tree debris.
Watch to learn more about the ongoing cleanup:
“It’s a big deal. Approximately 30,000 trees in an inventory — and over a quarter of them receive damage," Missoula Urban Forestry program manager Ben Carson said.
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It's a storm, with a magnitude many Missoulians had never seen before, tore through the urban forest one year ago.
“The scale of damage was something that I had never experienced," Carson shared.
No part of town was left unscathed.
Carson notes that the storm hit the Bitterroot Valley first, ripped up through Missoula, and then the gusts exited out Hellgate Canyon.
“We had staff out all night. We were in just triage mode, trying to get roads open so that EMS could make it to people's houses, trying to get trees off of cars and people's personal property, all those priorities, and trying to assist Northwestern Energy where we could to get power back on," Carson explained.
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Now, one year later, later, there’s still clean up to do.
“We currently have one last contract out that is FEMA eligible for uprooted stumps and boulevards. There are about 12½ of those still out there. Then we'll be dealing with regular stump removal and replanting for the next several years," Carson said.
Missoula’s Office of Emergency Management previously told MTN that the windstorm cost the City and the County collectively $5.5 million. Plus, since a state of emergency was declared, FEMA will cover 75% of the costs. It’s up to city officials to determine how the remaining 25% will be covered.
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“The contracts that I managed were in the $1 million range and that was hanger removal, tree removal, both in boulevards and parks. Debris grinding and disposal was really expensive and public works managed that contract. It was about $1.8 million," Carson detailed.
Even though we’ve hit the year mark from the storm, there’s still a long road ahead to reinvigorate the urban forest.
“We saw failures in all species of trees," Carson said. "I think that we're going to be identifying trees for removal, doing what we can to remove stumps and replants for probably the next 6 to 10 years, assuming we don't have another big weather event that takes all of our funding and defers us for another extended period of time."
The Missoula Urban Forestry Department has an online page dedicated to the 2024 windstorm. People with damage or questions can click here.
