Business & Tech

Clean-up Crew: We Can't Handle More Business

Private cleanup crews helping to remove storm debris from Potomac properties say they have more business than they can handle.

 

By noon Monday, Ann Butler and her landscaping crew were already removing storm debris from their fourth site visit of the day in Potomac, MD.

Butler, of Bessie Butler Tree Service based in Virginia, says she has more business than she can handle and has had to start turning away customers looking for clean up help after a .

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“We were here Saturday morning at the break of daylight when the phones started ringing,” Butler said. “The phones are so loaded that the secretary is sitting in our truck handling business.”

“We can’t handle more business outside of our regular customers,” Butler said, as her crew worked to pull a fallen poplar tree from the back of a Potomac house owned by Arlene Epstein.

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The tree had fallen within a grove in Epstein’s back yard and required a crane to move.

“This is the worst damage we’ve ever had, and we’ve been here 38 years,” Epstein said. A large branch also fell on the front of her house, which was without power for two days.

Montgomery County transportation officials continued to remove trees from county roads Monday, and homeowners have about downed trees on their property.

“Saturday and Sunday we did nothing but cut trees off of cars and houses. Today is the first day of clean up,” Butler said. “This is actually a disaster. The last time we had damage this drastic was [Hurricane] Isabel.”

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