Some Selma residents are still recovering from a severe thunderstorm that came through Saturday and knocked down trees and power lines.

While some have had trees removed from their homes and yards, Councilman Sam Randolph said others couldn’t afford to pay someone for the work.

“I want the council to give the mayor the okay to do what he’s got to do to get these limbs out of these people’s yards, especially elderly people that can’t afford it,” Randolph said during Tuesday night’s Selma City Council meeting. “If we don’t take action, those trees are going to be down there for months and months and months.”

After deliberating for several minutes the council passed a motion and gave Mayor George Evans the green light to allow the Public Works Department to assist people with cutting large limbs and trees off of houses and out of yards.

“Some of those trees I took pictures of came up from the roots. These are huge trees that the wind just blew down from the root,” Evans said.

“It is mind boggling to see that, and bless God nobody was hurt. We have a concern now … that we are trying to get limbs and trees off of people’s property.”

Before the motion was passed Councilwoman Bennie Ruth Crenshaw wanted to make sure the city had a process to assist people.

Crenshaw said she would agree to the motion if people were required to request an assessment and sign a waiver of liability before any work would be completed.

“I do think that those that can show they really can’t do it, those that don’t have any financial means, they should be able to call in and let us know and then let Tommy [Smith] evaluate that, and then go in,” Crenshaw said. “There are a lot of people who won’t have access to being able to do it.”

Crenshaw said some people were upset because there wasn’t a quick enough response from the city, but Public Works Director Tommy Smith said the department was working as soon as the storm was over.

“We were out from 5 p.m. until 1 a.m. that morning moving debris, moving trees from blocking residents’ homes and also on Sunday we worked from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. We were out there,” Smith said.

“The debris that we’ve already got cut, we’ll be able to get that up. The large trees that are in yards, we’re not going to be able to get that up. It might take until next week to go those trees. Some of them are 50 to 60 inches in diameter.”

Smith said most of the debris that was already cut and piled up would be picked up Wednesday.

Evans also discussed power outages that were caused by the storm.

Evans commended Aubrey Carter with Alabama Power for working to get power restored by early Sunday morning.

“I rode down those streets, and it was dark. I’ve never seen it so dark in our city,” Evans said.

Evans also thanked interim Police Chief Robert Green for taking care of gunfire that was going on while the power was out.

“That was ridiculous that somebody decided because of their power being out to frighten people,” Evans said. “Somebody just decided they wanted to upset the neighborhood. When the police department got there they had to surround the area and break up all of that.”

People that want limbs and trees on private property assessed are asked to call the city.”