Calgary will send parks staff to help Winnipeg recover from devastating snowstorm
Storm knocked down tens of thousands of trees
Calgary Parks staff will head to Winnipeg on Friday to help with emergency tree removal after the city was hit with a severe snowstorm last week.
The storm knocked out power to tens-of-thousands of Manitobans, and forced thousands of evacuees from their homes. Winnipeg's mayor, and the province's premier, declared a state of emergency.
- Winnipeg declares local state of emergency as collapsed trees threaten safety
- Manitobans could face more than week-long delay to get power back after snowstorm
In Winnipeg, 30,000 trees were damaged on public land and possibly tens of thousands more have been damaged or felled on private property. It's been estimated the cleanup could take months.
Along with staff, Calgary is sending aerial trucks and chippers to help with the tree removal. Costs of the trip will be covered by the City of Winnipeg.
Todd Reichardt, Calgary's urban forestry manager, says when Calgary was hit by an early and heavy snowstorm in 2014 — often referred to as Snowtember — the city was extremely grateful for support from other municipalities and organizations.
"We know firsthand how an event of this magnitude can impact the lives of citizens, and we're privileged to be in a position where we can provide support and share our learnings to help Winnipeg optimize their response and recovery," he said.
Some of the experts Calgary is sending were involved in the 2014 Snowtember cleanup and have since helped other neighbouring municipalities with major tree damage, Reichardt told the Calgary Eyeopener.
"So these guys eat this stuff for breakfast, quite frankly. So we're quite excited to go out and help our good friends," he said.
"Our guys are literally going to go out, get a list of the dangerous and high-risk trees, and they'll be going out to literally cut them down, put them to the side of the road, chip them up and keep moving on to the next ones, and ideally start to create a safer situation for the good folks of Winnipeg."
In Winnipeg, many trees still had leaves on their branches, creating significantly more damage from the heavy early-season snowfall.
The same situation happened in Calgary in 2014. That recovery cost $35 million, and the city has estimated it will take decades for its urban canopy to recover.
Crews from Saskatchewan, Minnesota and Ontario have already deployed to Manitoba to help restore power.