Snow damages power lines and trees in the south end of the valley

Braxton Wood loads branches on to a dump truck to clear the street on 100 W. in Hyrum after a snowstorm on Tuesday Oct. 12, 2021.

HYRUM – Cache Valley residents woke up to an early October snowstorm blanketing trees, yards and streets. The snow was heavy and wet breaking tree limbs, knocking down power lines and causing electrical outings across the south end of the valley.

Meghan Esplin knocks snow of of a tree limb in her front yard while tree limbs from a tree rests and her fence on Tuesday Oct. 12, 2021.

Cache County Sheriff Chief Deputy Matt Bilodeau said a lot of the severe damage he saw was from Logan south.

“Most of the damage was from tree limbs,” he said. “In Mendon there was a power line down and a power pole had snapped causing Mendon to be without power.”

The power out in Mendon contributed to the school closings in Wellsville and Mendon.

While he was out evaluating different locations, Bilodeau said he heard six to eight pops of limbs breaking off trees. There were a lot of branches about six inches in diameter falling on fences and in yards but as of late Wednesday morning he hadn’t seen any major property damage.

A branch from a tree fell on at 100 N. 100 E. that blocked the street until Hyrum City crews cleared it on Tuesday Oct. 12, 2021.

“We want people to careful out there clearing debris,” he said. “It’s okay to have a branch fall on a truck, but we don’t want one falling on someone’s noggin.”

The power went out in Hyrum from about midnight to about 3 a.m. and there were still several homes without power at 11 a.m. said Hyrum City secretary Keesha Rinderknect.

Based off what I am hearing the power outage was weather related,” she said. “Tree limbs pulled some the power lines down.”

Hyrum City crews were out early with heavy equipment and chainsaws clearing the main thorough fairs from tree limbs busted off and littering the streets.

A home located at 245 Apple Drive in Hyrum has a branch on the power line and the roof after a snowstorm blanketed the city on Tuesday Oct. 12, 2021.

Hyrum City’s Braxton Wood was busy in a mini excavator picking up branches and putting them in a city dump truck as other city workers were using front end loaders and whatever they could get their hands on to clear branches.

Hyrum City Mayor Stephanie Miller said it is very unusual to have this many tree limbs down because of snow.

“We have had times when we’ve lost a limb or two, but when I drove around early this morning it is bad,” she said. “We have lot of property damage, but the important thing is we got things moving early.”

There was a lot of the roads blocked because of tree limbs, and there were a lot of utility lines down, most of them cable television lines. There were some power lines that were down, but for the most part most of them are back up and going.

“If anyone is wondering what to do with tree limbs, they can take them to the irrigation ponds where they took them after the recent windstorm,” the mayor said. “It’s been stressful. We met with the city’s utility, Power & Light and city manager Ron Salvesen early this morning to figure out how to handle it.”

Neighbors grabbed chainsaws, trucks and trailers to carry off downed limbs in Hyrum  on Tuesday, Oct. 12.

Miller said sometimes they feel a little helpless and wonder what they can do but they went to work and things for the most part in the city are looking pretty good.

“We are doing pretty good. It’s just going to take a little time,” Miller said. “We were lucky we saw a lot of damaged fences but no damage to people or homes.”

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