Winds cause more than $400,000 in damage

Christopher Ortiz, (Bio) cortiz@greeleytribune.com
May 7, 2008

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Click here to see readers' photos of the wind damage.

Friday's wind storm left its mark not only on the landscape, but residents' pocketbooks as well.

Farmers and homeowners took the hardest hits in last week's wind storm that blew gusts of wind up to 60 mph throughout Weld County.

Tamara Pachl, a local spokeswoman for State Farm Insurance, said a little more than 200 homeowners filed claims totaling more than $400,000. State Farm has about a 25 percent market share. Pachl said the damage done was not severe as the winds felt.

"I don't think it was as big as we have seen in the past," she said. Pachl said it's not out of the question that more homeowners experienced some damage but that the damage was small enough that it didn't exceed their deductibles.

Janine Freeman, owner of J9 Crop Insurance in Ault, said the winds were strong enough to uproot and burn recently planted sugar beets, onions, and to some extent, wheat.

"We have a lot of guys who lost their beets," Freeman said.

The crops, which the majority were planted about three weeks ago, were blown out by the wind.

Though Freeman said most beet farmers will have time to replant their crops, onion farmers seemed to have fared worse.

"Onions got beat up pretty good," Freeman said.

And for the most part, it's too late in the season to replant them.

For beet farmers who can replant their crops, they are looking to be reimbursed between $39 and $50 an acre. Onion farmers who will have to forgo this season can expect insurance claims in the range of $500 an acre, according to Freeman. Crop insurance covers most damage done by Mother Nature, Freeman said.

The city saw very little damage.

Doug Clark, the city's risk manager, said aside from a few trees that were knocked down in some parks, the city came out unscathed.

The city lost some trees in Bittersweet and Cottonwood parks.

"The costs are minimal," Clark said. He estimated it will cost $1,200 to replace each tree.

Because the wind storm occurred so early in the spring season, tree damage wasn't as bad as it could have been because they still had few leaves, Clark said.

"We figured streets were going to be littered with branches," he said. "We were very surprised with the sustained winds that we didn't have more things go wrong."

Removal Service

Fees for tree and limb disposal to the Greeley's Green-Cycle Center will be waived for Greeley residents only through Sunday to help residents clean up after the high winds experienced on Friday.

Greeley's Green-Cycle Center is located one mile east of U.S. 85 on East 8th Street. The center is open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, accepting green waste and wood products.

For more information on acceptable materials and fees, call the center during hours of operation at (970) 590-4768, or call the city's Natural Resources Division at (970) 350-9833 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.