Nearly two weeks after damaging storm, cleanup still an issue, and contractors are booked
NORTH GREENBUSH (WRGB) Generators, flashlights, lamps and chainsaws. These are some of the items that flew off the shelves at this Tru Value in North Greenbush and its sister store in East Greenbush. Hugh Blake says the storm pushed them to their limits - and not just their inventory.
"We were able to get enough to fill the two stores with generators and then we sold them all out."
He says contractors were backed up cleaning up debris and getting trees off yards, houses and streets, especially for those that are in a contract with them. So customers lost patience and tried to remove trees and debris themselves.
"Sometimes they'll tell the customer ‘it's up to you, I can get there in a week,’ but when your tree’s on your house you want it taken care of right away."
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"They didn't want the rain coming in their house, so they did it themselves."
We got a hold of Scott Salmon, owner of SDS Tree Service. He was busy clearing these trees in Ballston Lake. He says he had 50 calls within the first four hours of the storm.
"People are having a lot of trouble finding somebody because obviously everybody is in the same boat."
He says the only way he could manage the workload was to prioritize it.
"Trees on houses. Structures, stuff where people could potentially be hurt. Going and taking care of that stuff first. And then going and putting all the cleanup type stuff off to a later date."
Albany, Schenectady, and Troy did help their residents pick up their debris as long as they put it in a pile on the curb. But the storm also hit city budgets hard they had to shell our money to contractors while they're down in revenue.
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