Benton County crews are busy clearing the roads of trees that snapped off in Monday's heavy storm. This is the third round of bad weather the road department has dealt in the last month.
Crews worked long hours to get the roads back open Tuesday (May 21).
"A great help to the county last night were all the volunteer fire departments who were out through the night cutting trees out off the roads," said Jack Brown, superintendent for the Benton County Road Department.
However, there is still a lot of work left and a few downed power lines to work around.
"There are some places with one lane where power lines has been a danger to our crews that we did not put them into until power lines are back up," Brown said.
The strong winds split an Oak Tree in half, which destroyed a fence and clocked Hickory Hills Drive near Avoca.
"We're seeing more damage like this," said Tim Intessimone with the Benton County Road Department. "A lot of people don't realize it but the wind storm brings down the power lines and it brings down the trees so people can't get to work."
Intessimone said clearing up the roads is also important in case someone has a medical emergency and can't get through. He said the damage is extensive.
"It's pretty major all over the county," Intessimone said. "We're getting out doing what needs to be done and getting them back open."
Brown said he expects crews to be out for the next two to three days.
"Picking up the brush and debris off the sides of the roads that we've cut and pushed over with equipment to get off the roadways," Brown said.
Brown said he expects to have an estimate on this new round of damage by the end of the week.