A Dalton Utilities worker cuts branches at 504 S. Thornton Ave. on Monday shortly after the storm. (Daniel Bell/The Daily Citizen)

DALTON, Ga. — “We can fix this,” Ridge Street resident Jimmy Singleton, said pointing to the fallen oak limb with power lines and cables pulled down with it. “I’m just thankful and we are blessed no one was hurt.”

Across the heart of Dalton on Tuesday, the sounds of chainsaws, wood chippers and the “beep, beep, beep…” of work vehicles backing up filled the warm and humid air as the cleanup from the Memorial Day storm was in full effect.

Downed trees and power lines remained strewn across lawns and some streets as residents, utility crews and work crews from the county, city and private businesses worked to pick up the pieces and debris left by the straight-line winds which the National Weather Service estimated to be between 70 and 75 miles per hour — sustained winds comparable to a hurricane. The hardest hit areas were Valley Drive, the McCarty subdivision and Brookwood.

Some of the damage was moderate with some structural damage to homes and automobiles hit by falling trees and limbs, while others only needed to pick up a few limbs and break out the leaf blower to clear their yards. Fortunately, there were no injuries reported due to the storm.

Gary Graham of Sunset Circle counted himself as one of the lucky ones as his grandson removed some limbs from his yard. Across the street, a large branch of a tree had fallen and the power and other cables were still down in the street Tuesday morning. Next door, another large tree was covering Graham’s neighbor’s yard.

He said he was grateful not to have sustained very much damage during the brief, but powerful, storm which hit Monday afternoon and hit downtown moving south from Tunnel Hill.

“It was real quick. It was real quick coming, real quick going and real quick while it was here,” Graham said. “I was inside, but I could see the wind, and I was thinking it was bad. It wasn’t swirling or anything, but you could tell how strong it was. It was as strong as it looked. When I was able to get out, I went up to the interstate, and you couldn’t tell anything had happened. It may have rained, but it didn’t do anything like this. It was isolated.”

The biggest impact of the storm appeared to be west of Thornton Avenue to Castle Road and south of Waugh Street to just north of Lakeshore Park. It was much the same area which saw a less powerful storm move through several years ago, according to Chris Norwood, who had a tree take down the awning and was laying on the roof of his guest bedroom at his house on Emmons Drive.

“This is the second time through here,” said Norwood, who has lived at his house for five years. “I think it happened all in the space of 10 minutes at most. It seemed like the worst of it was 30 seconds or a minute and then it was all over.”

Norwood said his power returned sometime during the night while his children — scared by the storms — slept with he and his wife.

Cedars and oaks along the eastern boundary of West Hill Cemetery along Ridge Street were snapped at the base, turning the trunks into elongated and oversized toothpicks. To the south on Greenwood Place, one large home had five massive oaks down in the front yard with the long full limbs draped over the porch.

Local tree removal contractor Johnny Herbert Pratt said just for removal of the trees at a residence like the lawn on Greenwood Place would reach upwards of $6,000-$7,000.

“This is one of the worst ones I have ever seen in Dalton,” Pratt said. “I have worked in other places as well traveling around, but this is as bad of tree damage in Dalton as I have seen.”

Jackie Pope has lived on Ridge Street since 1957 and has two large oaks in her yard, including one which next-door neighbor Singleton said was certified as one of the oldest acorn oaks in the state. But Pope said she was spared of much of the damage with littered the area around her house.

“It came on so quick,” she said. “I was at a friend’s and heard the thunder and said there was a storm coming and I headed home. I saw that tree go down across the street, and I just hoped I was still going to be standing when it was over. I wasn’t panicked but it was a little scary. I didn’t realize the extent of it until I got out and saw more and more. I’m lucky.”

Warnings through the National Weather Service and reports on the Weather Channel gave Singleton time to get his grandchildren to safety in the interior of his house, and he watched from a sun room as the storm rolled past.

“We went out on the front porch, and the wind got up pretty good, and it sounded like someone was dragging a dumpster down the street,” Singleton said. “It got to hailing and then it just got to the point where you couldn’t even see the cemetery across the street. There was so much flying around and so much rain, it was just bad. I was hearing trees popping, and I heard the power line pop out and drag down the gutter.

“It didn’t last five minutes and then it was over,” he said. “In that five minutes, it was a lot that happened.”

Now that the cleanup has begun in earnest, the Dalton Police Department has also sent out a warning for homeowners affected by the storm to be wise when it comes to repairs and debris removal.

Police spokesman Bruce Frazier said the department has not received any reports of tree service scams, but still advises people to be wary of businesses going door to door offering tree removal services. Frazier said “the overwhelming majority of them are legitimate businesses who are here to help” but incidents such as bad weather brings out unscrupulous people.

“Before you hire someone to do your tree removal, we recommend asking to see their insurance,” Frazier said. “You can contact the Better Business Bureau to check them out. And we advise you not to pay for the service before it’s performed. The most frequent type of tree service scam that you see is a business taking your money and then only doing part of the work or none at all and never showing back up. Our officers are on frequent patrol (Tuesday) in the areas affected by the storm and our officers have talked to some of the out-of-town businesses that have shown up, so we’re trying to keep an eye out.”