KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Many people in the Kansas City area are watching the forecast this week, including tree trimmers who said that if at least 3 inches of snow falls, expect a mess like back in 1996.
"It's going to be pretty bad,” Philip Lopez, owner of Arboles Tree Trimming told 41 Action News. “Especially with all the leaves — that's the main thing. It’s just the leaves. That's what was going to kill us.”
On Tuesday, Lopez prepared his equipment ahead of the rare October snow forecast. In recent days, worried homeowners have kept Lopez's company and several others busy.
Down trees were a huge problem in the October 1996 snowstorm. Lopez experienced it at the time as a lineman.
"It's just a lot of weight on one limb, a lot of weight on all limbs and a lot of weight on the whole tree," Lopez said.
Urban forester Michael Dougherty showed 41 Action News that a tree's structure and condition are key in determining whether it will lose a battle against mother nature.
"A long, arching limb like that with that arc that is going to be prone to failure possibly mid-limb because it can collect ice and snow at the end," Dougherty said.
But Dougherty said fall foliage might be a saving grace for some trees.
"It would be worse if these leaves were green, which are still strongly attached to the tree,” Dougherty said. “Many of these that are already going into fall color — many of those without excessive weight of the snow, additionally those leaves may just drop off."
The Board of Public Utilities in Kansas City, Kansas, said it has a proactive tree-trimming plan in place so the board is confident the city will be in good shape.
Evergy said it is ready to respond to outages as quickly as possible, but might request extra crews before the storm moves in.
