Hurricane aftermath

Lawn maintenance workers were racing from residences to businesses, using leave blowers, rakes and chainsaws to clean the debris left by Irene.

Ray Dunn’s Ryalcor lawn service and tree removal out of River Bend began receiving calls for service on Saturday, the day of the hurricane.

Pat Dunn, his wife, said the homeowners association at Fairfield Harbour hired Ryalcor before the storm, anticipating the need for lawn maintenance and tree removal.

“We’ve gotten an extreme amount of calls,” Dunn said. “They started Saturday and it has been nonstop.”

The first problem Ryalcor had to solve before helping in the cleanup was how to get out of River Bend. Dunn said about a half dozen trees were across their driveway. Her husband and his workers had to remove those Sunday and then remove two large trees on Gatewood Drive while city workers were working toward them from the other end to clear the street, she said.

So far this week, Ryalcor’s three crews have worked on cleanup projects lasting from two hours to some that will probably take two weeks, Dunn said.

Meanwhile, Dunn’s husband and his crews have been working so many hours, from 6:30 a.m. until 10 p.m., that he hasn’t had time to clean the 20 trees from his property and the two fallen trees on his garage, his wife said.

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