Forestry crews kept bustling over fallen, damaged trees

City of Winnipeg forestry crews have been kept hopping as gusty winds over the weekend raised the risk of damage to and from trees in the city.

Nowhere was that more apparent than Lipton Street in Wolseley, where a massive Elm cracked and toppled over into the street around 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Wouter Deconink said about an hour before the tree toppled he heard two sharp cracking noises from the tree minutes apart.

Not long after, fire crews turned up to block off the street with yellow tape.

The tree collapsed soon after as a number of people in the area looked on.

Deconink said it was a sad event and he'll be sorry to lose the afternoon shade the Elm provided.

"It's a loss, but that's life, right? Trees have to come down (but) its unfortunate they have to come down through an unpredictable act like this," he said.

A city spokesman said 170 calls came in for fallen or damaged trees between Friday and Saturday.

"Forestry crews have been responding since yesterday and will continue to attend to calls as they're able to this weekend," Kalen Qually said in an email.