PORTLAND, Ore. — Fallen trees are all around Portland after recent winter storms, and many of them caused severe damage to homes. But one West Hills resident says the damage to her house could have been avoided if the city of Portland had acted sooner.
"I knew this tree was going to fall on my house," Tina Uber said.
For more than a year, Uber said she's been trying to get a group of five trees removed from her neighbor's yard, worrying that they could damage her property — and her fears came true on Saturday when three of those trees fell on her home.
"And I'm lucky I wasn't killed," Uber said.
Uber's neighbor, Crystal Gonzales, said she agreed that the trees were hazardous, and she contacted arborists last year in hopes of getting the trees cut down.
"It was wasted effort," Gonzales said.
Several arborists told her that the city of Portland wouldn’t let them cut down many of the trees, because the trees were alive and more than 12 inches in diameter.
"I'm going, 'even if it's a life safety hazard? What if these trees fall down on the houses?'" Gonzales said. "One of them said, 'then you go and talk to your insurance.' Like, I have to wait for that?"
One arborist eventually agreed to file for a permit with the city of Portland to cut down the trees. He didn't want to do an interview, but told KGW that he never heard back on the permit request after filing it last year.
"Months went by," Gonzales said. "I would always ask at least once a month, had the city contacted him? Nothing. Nothing, nothing."
KGW reached out to the city of Portland for a response on Friday and was told city staff were looking into it. But the city added that a further response would be unlikely on Friday because crews are currently in "Emergency Response Mode," busy removing fallen trees all across the city.
On Monday, Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) told KGW that no request for a permit for that property was filed in 2023. PP&R said a permit application was received in 2020 and was approved that same year with replanting of one private property tree required, but "there is no record of another tree permit application having been submitted before or after this date – no record of any permit request being denied or approved other than the" [2020 application].
Many of the fallen trees PP&R spent last week removing were in the West Hills, including the ones that Uber said should have been cleared months ago.
"It was unnecessary that this happened," Uber said.
Two trees remain standing on Gonzales' property, and she and Uber said they would still like to see them taken down safely — but they're not optimistic that the necessary permits will ever materialize.