City of Knoxville Police, Fire and Public Service resources are working around the clock in response to this week's recent storm events. City personnel will continue to work in order to protect the health and safety of the public, clear roads and remove tree and brush debris from neighborhoods.

Mayor Daniel Brown expressed concern for all those affected by down trees, flooding and utility outages and is receiving regular updates on the response effort from his leadership team.

"The City of Knoxville has been hit very hard by storms this week and I am thankful that there has been no loss of life but am very concerned about the damage to property. Our public safety and public service employees are doing a terrific job working tirelessly in dealing with the challenge, responding to emergencies, clearing debris and directing traffic. I also appreciate the tireless efforts of KUB crews as they work to restore power throughout our community. We are all doing everything we can to deal with the impact of these storms."

David Brace, deputy director for the city's Public Service Department, said the department has been actively clearing roads and removing debris since approximately 8 p.m. Tuesday night when the first round of storms hit Knoxville. By Thursday afternoon most roads were passable and crews were starting to focus on removing debris when a second weather event caused significant road closures throughout Knoxville.

"We have received over 403 requests for limbs or downed trees across roadways and in neighborhoods since Tuesday night not including downed trees within parks or across greenways," Brace said. "Based on our initial assessment, the debris volumes for this week's events will surpass those experienced in April."

Due to the volume of storm debris, the Public Service Department is suspending its normal two-week brush collection schedules and will focus solely on clean-up and removal of trees, limbs and other debris. Crews will be working overtime and on the weekends over the next several weeks in an effort to remove as much damaged tree material as possible. Schedules will be suspended for at least two weeks.

Residents should stack/place organic debris at the edge of their property for collection. Please try to keep stacked debris out of the street and off of sidewalks. Large trees and limbs should be cut into manageable sections if at all possible. Extremely large tree sections MAY require the use of different collection equipment and may not be collected immediately for several weeks. The standard collection limits will be suspended at this time.

The Knoxville Police and Fire Departments as well as the Traffic Engineering and Stormwater Divisions have also been actively involved in the effort responding emergencies, directing traffic due to power outages and responding to flood complaints.