City's storm cleanup efforts stop at street

• Homeowners clean up

Diane Naatz started clearing her Lockridge Avenue yard of branches downed by Wednesday's tornado in Cottage Grove. The city announced Thursday it would not pick up private property debris left by the storm because of the limited area damaged by the high winds.

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The tornado touchdown in Cottage Grove’s Pine Coulee neighborhood on Wednesday left a mess in its wake: tree limbs and branches littered the street, uprooted trees lay across backyards and debris was plunked down wherever the strong winds had left it.

But residents of Lockridge Avenue, which was hit hardest by the twister, will have to deal with those downed trees and other storm-related wreckage left in their yard on their own — Cottage Grove officials have said the city’s role in the cleanup ended Wednesday when all hazardous debris was removed from the right of way.

Wednesday’s storm didn’t meet the threshold for declaration of a storm emergency, officials say, because of the limited area that was affected by the tornado.

Most of the damage was contained to the 17000 block of Lockridge Avenue.

For more information contact Cottage Grove Public Works at (651) 459-2808.

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