Hurricane Charley Means More Work for Landscape Contractors

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Keith Parker is tired. He owns a tree service in Georgetown.

Since Hurricane Charley took a swipe at the Grand Strand two weeks ago, Parker has been working his way up from Georgetown to the beach on debris removal jobs.

Sunday's Tropical Storm Gaston was a double-whammy.

"I just started getting next to the beach, and now this other storm came, and I've got a whole pile up again here in Georgetown," Parker said. "It's just overwhelming. It's too much."

Parker's Tree Service took 27 calls Monday, adding to the 134 calls already received since Charley.

"Everybody I know is busy that's in tree service," Parker said. "Everybody's getting tired, too."

Mike Mathis, co-owner of M&M Tree Service, said his company has been busy cleaning up large areas such as golf courses and condominium developments.

"We're still working on Charley, cleaning up from that," Mathis said. "The first three or four days, all we did was take trees off houses."

Such storms can increase business as much as 40 percent, Mathis said.

That's good if you're not already busy, said Chad O'Brien, vice president of Waccamaw Landscaping and Construction.

Cleanup from Hurricane Charley took the landscaping company off its regular jobs for more than a week, he said.

Although landscapers can be called in for debris cleanup and pruning damaged shrubbery, O'Brien recommends a tree service for heavier jobs such as trees on houses.

He also recommends consulting a licensed arborist if you are trying to save a damaged tree or trying to prepare your trees for the next storm.

"A good arborist can tell you if you have an unhealthy tree that's diseased," he said.

Tree removal can cost from $500 to more than $1,000, Mathis said.

He recommends a regular program of trimming the weight out of trees, as well as dead limbs, to make them more wind-resistant and less likely to topple.

Many tree services and landscaping companies have licensed arborists on staff.

Tree maintenance crews with Myrtle Beach are trained by licensed arborists.

City spokesman Mark Kruea said there are more than 10,000 trees on city rights-of-way, not including property on the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.

Hurricane Charley left more damage two weeks ago than Gaston this weekend.

"Most everything that was likely to fall down did so during Charley," Kruea said. "In the past two weeks, we've picked up about 40 percent of what we would normally pick up in a whole year."

So far, the city has picked up about 1,700 tons of tree limbs and debris - more than 3 million pounds - and hurricane season is far from over.