4 
EASTERN SHADE TREE CONFERENCE 
truck with a winch. Many cases could not be handled by lesser equip¬ 
ment and had to wait their turn on this equipment. The trunks and 
brush were laid along the roadways and the Street Department gangs 
and Relief Gangs carted away the trunks, roots and brush. They used 
chains and heavy trucks and dragged these roots, weighing two and 
three tons, to a temporary morgue, whence they were later carted away. 
Five weeks after the storm we were still clearing away trees in yards 
leaning on buildings! 
In addition to the Shade Tree gangs, numbering 60 men, with four 
trucks, the Fire Department, two Police Emergency crews, with flood 
lights and efficient engineering gangs, the Telephone and Telegraph com¬ 
panies and the Public Service with 17 tower trucks, were working con¬ 
tinuously for 36 hours. The day after the storm 300 men from the 
Street Department with 10 trucks were also put on the job of clearing up. 
In fact, all the emergency crews that could be mustered by city and 
county, numbering approximately 600 men, were continuously active 
in clearing the roadways. Another group that sprung into action were 
the citizens who coped with the problem whether it was a street tree or 
yard tree problem “on their own”. Saws and axes were at a premium— 
and the humble hatchet was not despised. Imagine clearing three 
towering poplars from your front yard with one dull hatchet! That 
same family brought the clothes line into requisition, holding a tug-of- 
war with the tempest while it was raging, and saved the Norway maple 
8" diameter and a Norway Spruce from going over! The stuff of the 
pioneers—doing yeomanly under difficult conditions is still with us 
when the emergency makes demands for these qualities. 
The preponderant species which were bowled over in Newark were the 
poplars and silver maples (saccharinum) . Being soft-wooded and quick¬ 
growing and carrying heavy crowns of foliage, these were the chief suf¬ 
ferers. We did not plant these varieties. Many of them were planted 
too close together. Thus, the loss of some of these among the street 
trees was not an unmixed calamity. A small proportion were oaks, 
Norway Maples and Oriental Planes. The complete tabulation of the 
figures is under way. We hope to have an accurate summary in due 
time. The W.P.A. Census Project with an adequate staff, is addressing 
itself to this task. 
The trees toppled over taking the sidewalks with them. On one 
block of Osborne Terrace, twelve (12) poplars, 18 to 24" in diameter 
were laid diametrically across the street. One substantial frame garage 
