Storm: Rock Island neighbors help each other

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By Tom Saul | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 2:05 AM CDT | () comments

Lou Kaiser stood on the roof of his battered pickup truck with a hand saw, then a chainsaw, then a hand saw again.

Kaiser’s mission was to get the downed tree limb off the truck parked along the 1900 block of 9 1/2 Street in west Rock Island, which had become an obstacle course of broken trees and oddly skewed vehicles moved out of harm’s way.

“I have to get to work this afternoon,”Kaiser said, as neighbors helped him get the limb off his truck.

Janice Kaiser, Lou Kaiser’s wife, said a power outage in the neighborhood of mostly elderly people made matters more difficult.

“I have a breathing machine hooked up inside the house, and I first realized the power was out when I couldn’t breathe,” she said.

Throughout west Rock Island, downed trees, limbs and power lines complicated travel to work for many, closed businesses and drew neighborhoods out of their homes to assess damage and do what clean-up they could.

Lt. J.R. Green of the Rock Island Fire Department stood watch on West 31st Avenue at the Iowa Interstate Railroad track near 5th Street where one power pole was snapped off about 10 feet above the ground and several others lay strewn along the tracks.

Green and a colleague blocked traffic from the west and a Rock Island Police squad car blocked traffic from the east as a MidAmerican Energy crew rolled up about 8 a.m. to assess the damage. The verdict? Not good.

“This is a main voltage trunk that serves west Rock Island and Milan,” Green said. “It’s going to take a while for the power to get back on.”

On the grounds of the Rock Island County courthouse, a crew picked up downed limbs and dragged others out of surrounding streets as Mike VanErstuelde, a county maintenance worker, walked the lawn pointing out bits of board, tar paper and a mangled metal vent that apparently were blown off the roof by the storm.

“It’s been a bad year for weather,” VanErstuelde said.

Joe Simpao, of the Rock Island parks department who was leading a crew of summer help in Sunset Park and Marina, said he would have to agree. He and his helpers were clearing the bike path as best they could.

— Tom Saul