News : Total recovery from storm will take decades

There is a house under this tree. See it?

AmeriCorps members help clean up a park area in Vinton Tuesday.

This Chevy was flattened by a huge tree falling over A Avenue

One of the tombstones near fallen trees at Evergreen Cemetery; some were damaged.

A common sight in Vinton...

Jon Clingman's yard is now filled with large fallen trees like this.

Connie Ogier's landscaped garden was destroyed by the wind and falling trees.

Gary DuCharme looks at his house, under 4 large trunks.

Emma Clingman takes a break from helping her dad clear trees from their yard.

Marty Blind's grape orchard was damaged by the wind.

Some property owners are dealing with multiple fallen trees in yards and on houses.

A tree leans over a house on 4th Street.

This lily was blown from a neighboring garden to this flower-less location.

Workers assess damage at Trinity Lutheran.,

Tree removal has been taking place all day.

Marty Blind and an insurance adjuster look at his damaged car.

This damaged house is for sale at 1012 9th Ave.

Fallen poles covered several city streets.

Workers repair a house on north Ninth Avenue.

Workers removed damaged metal from the Schoonover building.

Linemen repair poles and wires on Highway 218 near 4th Street.

A view from inside a vehcile that has been hit by a fallen tree.

A broken street lamp lies among fallen branches.

A fallen tree covers a bent stop sign on 8th Street.

A light pole leans over 8th Avenue near 8th Street.

Connie Ogier's arboretum.

Jon Clingman's yard full of century-old trees.

Marty Blind's Orchards.

The casualties of Monday's storm include more than houses and cars. Some of the things lost were the product of years, or decades of work by area residents.

But, says Ogier, the 2011 Vinton Women's Club Woman of the Year, all you can do is start over. Ogier was among the multitudes of Vinton residents spending time cleaning her yard on Tuesday. Her back yard once included some giant trees and a variety of flowers near a wooden archway. Almost all of it was flattened on Monday.

So many of Clingman's huge trees were downed at his home on West 6th Street that he will not be able to use his driveway for weeks.

And across the street from Clingman, Marty Blind says he probably needs to tear out his grapes and start over with a new orchard. The only tree in Blind's yard that didn't get damaged or destroyed was a dead one that had no leaves to catch the 100+ MPH winds that battered most of Vinton for more than 10 minutes while most of the city was sleeping.

While street crews cleared trees and brush to allow residents access to their homes, utility workers tried to restore power, and restaurant crews worked to feed a city that couldn't cook for itself for a second straight day, other residents took inventory of the damage they experienced and observed.

"It's sad, it's really sad," said one woman who stopped to see a car flattened by a huge tree.

Others, however, counted their blessings. Even though several trees fell on houses with people inside, there were no injuries reported. And many people came to Vinton to help. One many showed up at the Clingman's on his motorcycle -- a stranger who said he wanted to help.

It will be days before every house in Vinton has electricity; weeks, perhaps, before all of the streets, alleys and sidewalks are cleared of fallen trees; months before all of the structural damage that took place in less than 15 minutes can be repaired.

But the city has also lost scores of centuries-old trees, many of them at Evergreen Cemetery. There, some of the oldest tombstones were damaged by falling branches or trunks.