RICHLAND, Wash.-- Crews will be working into the night, cleaning up the mess left behind from one of the strongest windstorms we've seen in a while.
The storm left lots of damage all over the Tri-Cities, uprooting dozens of trees and knocking down power lines.
At John Dam Plaza, large trees were entirely uprooted, leaving gaping holes in the ground and debris spread all over the park. Ten trees were knocked down in the park alone.
And all across Richland, the storm caused lots of damage and several power outages.
Workers faced a busy day of clean up, cutting up trees knocked down by the large wind gusts that blew through the area Monday.
Many of those trees knocked down power lines, leaving people without electricity in many Richland neighborhoods.
Lara Harmon's neighbor's car was smashed by a tree that fell down, just missing the house.
"They were just saying that they were very lucky that it fell between the two homes here. It barely missed the house next door. It didn't even take the Christmas lights off. I'm just happy it didn't go the other way because it would've landed on our car or our house," Harmon said.
The same thing happened one block away, destroying property and changing the neighborhood landscape.
The Richland School District is working overtime to make the grounds safe for students.
"Probably got seven or eight trees down in the school district. Five or six hours per tree probably depending on the size and if it's on wires or not," said Kevin Johnson, Groundsman for Richland School District.
Local parks just aren't what they used to be. At John Dam Plaza, old trees were unearthed and now lay on their sides.
Kristen Clark went to the park to see the damage and was shocked to see what it looked like.
"We've had wind storms in the past, but to see these trees uprooted like this is really surprising and really impressive to see what storm we had last night," Clark said.
It's a similar scene at Howard Amon Park with trees scattered on the ground and tipped over garbage bins leaving a big mess.
Mary Ellen Coulson was at the park checking out the damage.
"Trees that we sit under in the summer time with all the shade and there's domino effect, there's some over on the side there. One tree has taken down two other trees. It's, wow," said Coulson.
One thing is for sure, it's going to take a while to get things back to normal in Richland.
As for the hundreds of people in Richland that lost power, The City of Richland said some areas were restored Monday afternoon, but for the people living in the area from Boise Street through Duportail, power isn't expected to be restored until Tuesday.
