PORT ANGELES — The city parks department is still in “cleanup mode” after a windstorm knocked down at least eight trees in Lincoln Park on Dec. 14, Port Angeles Parks and Recreation Director Corey Delikat said.
Fallen trees and branches are strewn across the wooded park and playground equipment.
The gate at the main entrance to Lincoln Park is closed but the park remains open, Delikat said.
A fallen tree lies across a Port Angeles Parks Department maintenance building at the northeast corner of Lincoln Park. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Delikat estimated that the storm caused $250,000 to $300,000 in damage to the Port Angeles parks system.
He could not recall a storm that caused as much damage to city parks.
The storm caused power outages that put most of Clallam County in the dark. Cleanup in Olympic National park is stalled by the partial federal government shutdown that began Dec. 22 and also continues elsewhere in the county.
Playground equipment stands crushed by a fallen tree in the aftermath of a Dec. 14 windstorm that damaged Lincoln Park in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
One large tree crushed the parks maintenance building near the corner of 16th and F streets at the northeast corner of Lincoln Park, forcing the parks department to look for a temporary building to house its maintenance equipment.
“It is totaled,” Delikat said Thursday.
“The framework is competed destroyed.”
The maintenance building was unoccupied when the giant fir came crashing down.
“I’m just glad no one was hurt,” Delikat said.
A fallen tree lies across damaged playground equiment in Lincoln Park in Port Angeles after the park sustained extensive damage from a windstorm Dec. 14. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
City officials had no timeline for removing the debris from Lincoln Park.
“We’re in cleanup mode now, assessing everything and trying to regroup so that we can get going on next year’s work plan,” Delikat said.
“We’ve just got to get situated.”
A disc golf basket stands near a fallen tree at Lincoln Park in Port Angeles, the result of a windstorm that raked areas of the North Olympic Peninsula on Dec. 14. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Had the fir tree that crushed the maintenance building hit the nearby substation, it would have required a $1.5 million to $2 million repair, Public Works Director James Burke told the City Council at its Dec. 18 meeting.
“That was a big near miss hit on that one for electrical,” Burke said. “Unfortunate for the parks department.”
A wind-blown tree lies across playground equipment in Lincoln Park in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
A tree also fell in Jesse Webster park and a fence near the Erickson Playfield tennis courts was toppled in the storm.
“In 2008, we had some damage, but nothing like this,” Delikat said.
“Nothing like wiping out our entire shop. Again, I’m just glad no one was hurt.”
A sign at the front gate to Port Angeles’ Lincoln Park warns people away from entering the park because of extensive damage from the Dec. 14 windstorm. Although the park is officially open, roads remain closed because of fallen trees and debris. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
West of Lincoln Park at William R. Fairchild International Airport, the Dec. 14 windstorm caused “significant damage” to the East and West Block Hangar, Port of Port Angeles Director of Engineering Chris Hartman said in memo.
Port of Port Angeles commissioners will consider an emergency repair contract for the hangar roof in a special meeting Wednesday.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
A sign warns people away from a limb-scattered trail through a forested area of Lincoln Park in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Shattered tree trunks serve as a testiment to the power of the Dec. 14 windstorm as broken branches litter Lincoln Park in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
