Storm cleanup enters new phase, but will take months to complete

City of Ottawa crews have collected debris from last month’s massive storm along more kilometres roadway than it takes to drive across Canada, officials said Tuesday.

And although the city’s storm cleanup work is entering a new phase, it’s expected to take months for the work to be finished.

"This clean-up effort is the largest Public Works has ever led," public works general manager Alain Gonthier said in a memo. "It will take months before it is all complete, but our teams have made incredible progress and will continue until the job is done."

The memo outlines the staggering amount of cleanup the city has done since the May 21 storm, which killed three people in the capital region and knocked out power for days to hundreds of thousands of Ottawa residents.

Crews have collected debris from more than 10,000 lane kilometres of roadways, and a citywide first pass for curbside debris collection is done.

Staff are already doing second and third passes in the worst-hit areas of Navan, Pineglen, Uplands and Stittsville, with more planned for other areas.

Residents with more storm-related tree debris are asked to bring it to the curb by Friday, June 24 so city crews can pick it up using heavy equipment. Smaller branches and other debris can go out with regular leaf and yard waste.

Pineglen resident Grahame Hunt says the city has been by "several times" to pick up debris he's brought to the curb.

"I’ve had cherry trees go down, I’ve had pine trees go down, I had maple trees go down; I had a cedar hedge in the back that was crushed," he said. "Three weeks of strenuous, heavy work; back-breaking work."

Jack Gravelle, the city's public works area manager for suburban east roads said the work has been constant.

"We’re picking up dump truck after dump truck, and we’re continuing to fill them constantly on a daily basis," Gravelle said. "The scope, it’s across entire city, from Stittsville to Sarsfield... we’ve had our staff working around the clock, 12-hour shifts since the storm hit, and we’re still going at it - we’re still just in certain areas just scratching the surface."

Storm-related debris will be free at the Trail Road waste facility until Saturday, June 25.

Parks cleanup

More than 500 city parks had tree-related damage that needed repair work, the city said Tuesday. Of 528 parks with varying degrees of damage, work at 256 has finished. The other 272 still need repair work, which will keep going in the coming weeks.

"The clean-up efforts remaining for our parks and City trees are significant, and staff are addressing them on a priority basis," Gonthier said. "It will take several weeks to complete this work."

Ministry of Natural Resources crews, forestry rangers and contractors have been helping with the work. This week, a city of Hamilton forestry crew is helping with “high priority and complex work related to City tree removal operations.”

Normal work resuming

The storm cleanup has been all-encompassing for public works staff, meaning other regular work was suspended. There have been delays in filling potholes. Some residents may have noticed longer grass in parks and along roadsides and medians.

That temporary suspension is now over, with public works catching up mowing operations through next week, Gonthier said.

About 70 per cent of parks staff have returned to normal duties, with the rest working on tree debris cleanup in parks and on roadsides.

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Peter Szperling.