Tulsa Storm Debris Pickup Underway

On Monday, Tulsa County Commissioners declared a county level "emergency" because of the storm last week that downed trees all over the area.

The cleanup from that storm is underway.

Tulsa residents and city crews are bringing limbs and other tree debris to the greenwaste site at 56th Street North. Between 900 and 1,400 loads of debris have been dropped off every day since the storm.

Workers say mulching will be going on long after all the loads of debris have been delivered.

There's a steady crowd at the City of Tulsa greenwaste mulching site where homeowners can drop off all they've picked up - if they're not waiting on the City to do it for them.

"We take care of it ourselves; we're Okies," said Myron VanMeter, Tulsa resident.

VanMeter is on his seventh trip from his east Tulsa neighborhood, where he's cleaning up for his neighbors.

"Anything that was standing up very high, is gone," he said.

7/28/2013 Related Story: City Of Tulsa Releases Tree Debris Pickup Map

The city dump trucks are lined up too with what's been picked up on the first day. Everything that comes in here is going to be turned into mulch - but it's coming in faster than the mulcher can keep up.

Gary Spencer has a tree trimming business - that's doing good business.

"We've done mostly people with emergencies, trunks on the roof, get them lined out and come back and take out the tree if we need to," said Gary Spencer, Spencer Tree Service.

In the neighborhoods - city crews started the job of picking up and hauling off everything homeowners can get to the curb. They started on the edges of the city - working toward the center where there's more damage.

A few homeowners didn't get their trees done in time - or didn't get it out to the curb.

"That's pushing the reach of our equipment right there, that means we'd have to go in there by hand and pull it out and that's taking more time than we need to," said Phillip Eaks, City of Tulsa.

The special City sweep is working around the regular trash service - which for the time being - is skipping over greenwaste - even if it's bagged, and tagged.

A separate truck will come along to get that and it doesn't have to be tagged.

The city projects finishing up will take several weeks, at least.

See a map of the places that have been picked up and the areas scheduled for Tuesday.