I recently listened to the sounds of rasping saws from a neighboring house as they brought down tree branches and then trunks damaged by winter storms three months ago.  We too had waited patiently for over two months for a contractor clear away our blow down debris and to remove dangerous trees.

Maple Valley and vicinity was hit by two very dangerous storms — the first was a highly destructive freezing rain/snow storm hitting us on January 19.

The second beginning on Jan. 30 was a wind storm from the east with wind speeds to 75 mph and which inflicted additional damage.  During the first storm we lost electrical power and of course cable, and then surprisingly phone and Internet service (historically phone service stays up).

We got electrical power (and cable) back the next day on the 20th.  Phone and Internet (we get both from Century Link) service was out until the 24th — thank God for cell phones.  Beginning on the 30th we lost all power and services again.

The next day electrical power and cable were up, but phone and Internet were out until Feb 1.

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) did fairly well in keeping us informed and getting our power back quickly.  Century Link on the other hand did poorly.  They have out sourced the NW call center to the Philippines, and the operator there didn’t know anything about a storm and it went downhill from there.  After we lost service during the second storm, a robot answered our call and said that it would take five days to get our service back.

I decided to call and get a US call center, which turned out to be in Arizona, and asked them to schedule service sooner.

Anyway, they connected me to a repair office located in Auburn — two days later our service was restored by a technician within 15 minutes after his arrival.

I want to thank the fine folks in Arizona and Auburn for their excellent service.

We bought our house new in 1977 with a shy quarter acre lot loaded with about 30 beautiful fir trees; they gave us privacy and a great fresh air smell all year round.  The first storm dropped several ice encrusted branches (think of heavy, pointy and fast unguided missiles) from on high onto our roof which caused several hundred dollars in damage.

Then about a week later the wind storm hit breaking many ice weakened branches, which while causing little additional damage left us with mounds of debris.

The wind storms of 2003 took down 10 whole trees, so it was with heavy hearts that two giant hundred years plus old trees had to go for safety reasons — they were close to the house.

Our contractor is a recycler, he assured us that the beautiful wood from the trunks would go to a mill to make lumber; the chips would be sold and the rounds would be sold for fire wood.

Now we have just three large trees left which are a fair distance from the house.

PSE came by in February to trim the upper branches of trees near overhead power lines. We have a pole carrying power, phone and cable out front and a tree in our yard with branches enmeshing the wires.  PSE’s policy is to trim only its power lines clear of branches, while the phone and cable companies, whose wires are below the power line (in that order), have no preventive trimming policy, but will come out and trim if branches are causing problems.  PSE’s trimming program has been cut back, our tree was last trimmed five years ago, and while seeming cost effective, PSE is now seeking $92 million to cover its storm expenses.

I can’t help but think that burying lines in places known to have problems over the years, combined with a two/three year trimming interval is a cost effective way to go.

I offer the following for PSE to consider as a cheap solution: swapping (only where necessary) the power and cable lines to bottom and top, letting the cable line take the falling tree hit.

A by-product of winter storms are piles of blow down debris, and then some folks go out and burn them, poisoning the air for the rest of us.

According to the Maple Valley Fire Dept. burning is illegal, period, and one should call 911 to report a non emergency fire, and the firemen will then come out.

I have seen these fires burn for hours, so it seems folks don’t want to rat on neighbors (nowadays that could be risky, think retaliation).

Since the police patrol our area periodically, they should contact the burners to put the fires out, and to ticket repeat offenders.

We feel somewhat lucky in that no one was hurt, damage was slight, and we could afford the several thousand dollars in repairs and tree removal.

I think of our fellow Americans whose homes were ruined by tornados and my heart yearns to help them in anyway I can.

PS  as I write this I hear buzz saws going at another near by house.

Anthony E. Pomata

Maple Valley