Hurricane Irene Leaves Point Boro a Lesson for Future Storms

For the Zitarosa family, Hurricane Irene did more than send a huge tree limb tree crashing into their backyard pool.

She left behind a warning that the next storm might send a tree crashing down onto their house, car, or one of them, at their home on the 2200 block of Rogers Road in Point Borough. The Zitarosas have three young daughters.

Same goes for their next-door neighbors, Terry and Vanessa Faucher and their children. Irene sent a towering limb crashing down onto play equipment and grass in the backyard, making them worry the next storm might do worse.

Now the households on Rogers, as well as many others throughout the borough and region, are taking inventory of the trees still standing and the limbs still intact, trying to evaluate which ones might come down in the next storm.

Kevin Burke, the borough's zoning and code enforcement officer, said the borough didn't get the full brunt of Irene, which, in this immediate area, took down mostly branches, rather than unearthing whole trees.

But he agreed that Irene also left behind a wake-up call for residents to take stock now.

"It's a good time to evaluate trees, that's just good common sense to keep safe," he said.

For example, Burke inspected some of the trees on Rogers and said they appeared to be alive.

"Even though some of the trees are precariously leaning, they're alive, and I can't ask people to cut down live trees," he said.

"I can only ask people to remove trees if they're dead," he explained.

But he said it's certainly a good idea for the residents on Rogers, as well as throughout the area, to take inventory to see if any trees appear to be rotting, dying, or diseased, which might mean they could be potential safety risks.

"I'm doing that in my own backyard, where there's a tree leaning," he said. He said he's still mulling over whether to have it further evaluated or removed.

Burke said if a tree expert or an engineer writes a recommendation that a tree needs to come down, he would probably be in a position to have the owners take it down.

Burke also said he recommends that residents be a bit wary of relying on staff from tree removal companies to advise them on whether trees need to come down.

He said an agricultural expert, who can aptly diagnose whether a tree has any diseases or is rotting or dying, is more likely to give a more objective opinion than a tree cutter who gains financially by saying the trees need to come down.

However, it's hard to find a tree expert who does house calls. So, if a resident needs to consult with a tree service, it's probably best to get a few opinions and then weigh them, Burke said.

Th Fauchers rent from John and Michelle Brown, who used to live in the house before moving to Spring Lake Heights.

On Friday afternoon, John Brown used a chainsaw and a lot of elbow grease to chop up and remove the trees from both yards since the limb that destroyed the Zitarosa's pool broke off a tree on their property.

While the residents appreciate the tree removal, they worry about what the next hurricane or driving blizzard will do.

Faucher, who used to work for a family tree removal business, said he's worried about a tree close to his house that seems to be rotting and others along the fence between his rental and the Zitarosa property.

"If we have another winter like the last one, we won't have a tree in a pool, we'll have a tree on a house," said Faucher, who has lived in the home for about two and a half years and has two step-children, Mikaela, 9, Jacob, 11. His son, Rick, is at college.

"I told them I would take down the trees for a month's rent and they said no," Faucher said, adding he pays $1,700 monthly, plus water and utilities.

Michelle Brown said she and her husband feel Faucher should stick with the rental agreement to pay the monthly rent and do not want to barter the rent away.

Michelle Brown said she and her husband will take a look at the trees, especially one that appears to be rotting on one side, that is next to the house where Faucher and his family live.

The tricky part is that sometimes hurricanes and storms can send even live, healthy trees plunging to the ground, damaging anything and everything that happens to be under them, Burke said.

"The live, national Christmas tree, still planted in the ground, came crashing down in a wind storm last winter in Washington D.C.," he noted.

So removing only trees that appear to be dying or rotting is not necessarily a guarantee that limbs won't crash down in the worst places, Burke noted.

The recycling center is behind the Stop and Shop shopping plaza on Bridge Avenue.

Borough officials are allowing that because of the debris left behind by the hurricane.

The town also decided to pick up brush and tree debris left at the curb by residents. However, if the borough already picked up brush on a certain street, they are not returning to do a second pickup.

The normal brush pickup schedule (second Tuesday of each month) is expected to resume in October and to continue on that schedule until further notice.