Monsoon: Crews clear downed trees blocking Gilbert roads

GILBERT, Ariz. - Neighbors and crews in Gilbert are cleaning up on Aug. 13, after a powerful monsoon storm ripped through the night prior, toppling trees and blocking streets.

"We have trees down all over the Valley right now, so we’ve got different crews on different sites," said Jared Gray with Element Landscape.

Local perspective:

When trees come down, Gray gets the call.

"We make sure the sidewalks and the streets are able to pass by. We just start cutting it up in little pieces, and little by little, chunks are loaded up and we get it out of here," Gray said.

Gray's crews had to move fast.

"We got the call last night around 8:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.," Gray said. "Had a few guys here to clear out a path in the road, and then showed up here just after 5:30 this morning and went hard at it."

Why you should care:

Downed trees lined the street in a neighborhood near Baseline and Gilbert roads, leaving a mess that caught neighbors off guard.

"It was completely flooded in our backyard," said area resident Mitch Crowley. "It was torrential rain and it knocked over our grill. We saw a couple trees that got knocked down when a storm passed here recently, and there was some lightning that struck but no, nothing this bad. I mean, this was pretty intense."

The road was so blocked that some neighbors could not even get home.

"It was different. I’ve been through different storms here in Arizona, but this one kinda had all the trees here in my neighborhood," said neighbor Isha Martinez. "I wasn’t able to pass through. I had to find other ways."

Big picture view:

 The damage may vary from storm to storm, but for crews out in the Arizona heat, one thing never changes.

"Man, we’re sweating. That’s what we’re doing," Gray said.

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