Hunter
08/20/20
The City of Cedar Rapids says cleanup from last Monday’s derecho continues, as more residents are getting their power back.
Alliant Energy is showing minimal progress on reducing the number of outages, but crews of about 1000 people are working to secure transmission lines to neighborhoods. They’re hoping to have most of the power back to neighborhoods by Friday night.
The city announced that on Tuesday, City, DOT, contractor, and National Guard crews collected more than 2,200 truckloads of debris, bringing our total to 9,791 truckloads, or approximately 21,800 tons. As of Wednesday afternoon, a first pass has been completed on approximately 12 percent of city roadways. Approximately 58 percent of roads are prepped for hauling, meaning that tree debris has been moved off the surface of the road and ready for pickup. Approximately 30 percent of roads are in progress, either clearing debris off roads or working with Alliant Energy to remove power lines. Crews from Public Works, Forestry, and Parks are working from dawn until dusk to clear roads and haul debris.
Public works say they have about 75% of the city’s 191 traffic light intersections powered back up, and are still on track to have them 100 percent operational by the end of the week. Crews have replaced or repaired over a thousand stop signs since the storm and continue to replace critical signage.
Police and Fire continue to get calls for service well above average. The police through Tuesday have handled over 4600 calls and dealt with 240 traffic accidents since the storm hit. While they say there hasn’t been any major incidents, motorists are still urged to drive cautiously due to debris causing some visibility problems at intersections. The 4600 calls are nearly 160 more calls per day than an average period. Fire officials have taken nearly 1600 calls in the same period, over five times the normal average.
Crews have made a big dent in garbage pickup; the city says they’ve dropped nearly 1100 tons in the last week, about two-and-a-half times more than a typical week. The Cedar Rapids-Linn County Solid Waste Agency accepted just under 3000 tons on Tuesday, nearly five times the average.
Residents can find current information on the City’s website, www.cedar-rapids.org.