It hardly seems possible since there were so many piles of branches in those neighborhoods hit hardest by the Aug. 4 storm, but David Picozzi expects it all to be cleaned up by the end of this week.

The director of public works said city crews, plus three contractors that the city calls in the wake of hurricanes, have completed at least one sweep in most neighborhoods. Picozzi remains amazed by the devastation left by the storm and its intense macrobursts, which splintered trees and sent them crashing across roads and through the roofs of houses. He doesn’t remember encountering such destruction.

“It was crazy; thankfully it only lasted a half hour,” he said. “Can you imagine what it would have been like otherwise?”

Picozzi’s plan of attack is for regular weekly yard waste crews to pick up smaller bundle of branches and bags, to be followed with another crew with a chipper to take care of the bigger branches.

Now that the city relaxed requirements on the bundling of branches for the purpose of cleaning up storm debris, Picozzi is finding residents are cleaning out their yards. Mayor Scott Avedisian said last week he’s seeing fresh cut branches piled on top of storm branches with brown and dead leaves.

In order to accommodate the volume of downed branches and trees in Gaspee and Governor Francis Farms, public works crews have used the North Country Club field as a collection spot. With completion of the collection, chippers will be brought in to grind it up before transport to the compost station on Sandy Lane.

Avedisian observed that people are taking cut-up wood from alongside the road, which is great and lessens the load for the city. Also, he said some residents have requested the wood chips, which is also a savings to the city.