Tree damage ‘we’ve never seen.’ Map shows thousands of 311 calls during Sacramento storms

The rain started falling, the winds started howling, and the phones started ringing.

Sacramento’s trusted canopy — tattooed on the city’s skin forever, printed on apparel and protected by a list of laws — turned on us without much warning. In the first three weeks of January, the 311 customer service line directed roughly 3,000 tree-related requests to Sacramento’s Urban Forestry, data show.

The majority of the trees that toppled onto the capital city were healthy, uprooted by heavy rainfall and strong winds.

The idea of a tree falling seemed scary. The outcome was even scarier.

Large trees smashed homes, split cars and sidewalks, knocked out power and killed people. At least two unhoused residents, Rebekah Rohde, 40, and Steven Sorensen, 61, died in January when trees fell on top of their tents.

The aftermath of fallen trees outside of Sacramento was similar.

A mixture of heavy rainfall and wind toppled a redwood tree into a Sonoma County home, killing a baby inside. A tree fell on top of a man, 72, on New Year’s Eve, the beginning of what would be a record-breaking string of hazardous storms, and killed him at Lighthouse Field State Beach in Santa Cruz.

Clean up around Sacramento could take up to six months to complete, according to the city.

Sacramento loses 10,000 to 30,000 trees every year. The cleanup effort will likely take several months to complete. And for residents, dealing with property damage to cars and homes will be challenging and time consuming.

While 1,500 fallen trees is an immense number in a short time span, the ecosystem is capable of sustaining such a loss. New trees are planted daily in Sacramento. All fallen city maintained trees will be replaced, according to urban forestry officials.

Under normal storm conditions, the risk to trees is extremely low. Many trees in Sacramento have been here for more than a century, surviving a number of major storms.

Driving through the city a month later, you can still see the footprint of the fallen trees — roofs in need of repair, fences battered, roots left behind.

Sacramento’s canopy is changed — leaving the city to mourn.

This story was originally published February 9, 2023 at 8:00 AM.