Who Cleans Up The Storm Mess On Private Roads?

Another wind storm, but miracle of miracles, the power did not go out. We did get more branches down on our little neighborhood private road, & a couple of small trees would have come down too had they not collided on the way down & ended up creating a hazardous "archway" across the road. Another good gust could bring them both down--hopefully not on someone's head.

The county is good about clearing away downed trees on county roads, but those who are out very early in the morning usually carry chain saws to clear a path before the road crews find them.

There is an unwritten rule that if it's your trees or branches it's up to you to clear them out of the way. The trouble is we have much vacant land on the island, mostly woods & owned by absentee owners. So if you want to get through you saw through it & move it yourself.

Decades ago the property owners in our neighborhood apparently encroached on someone else's land to cut a road through & there are still bad feelings on the part of the owner's son. It's just a small strip of land fronting the county road but he can't sell it because our road bisects it. If anything he'll gloat over any tree hazard that would hinder our access so it'll be up to us to clear them away. So far no one's stepped up. We'll have to wait until the next wind storm.