Duquesne woman will have to cover expenses after car damaged by storms, city says

DUQUESNE, Pa. — Channel 11 is getting answers for neighbors dealing with damage in Duquesne.

Wednesday, we spoke with multiple people who dealt with fallen branches and trees, caused by overnight storms.

>> Duquesne woman’s car badly damaged in overnight storms

“Who’s gonna pay for my car? I can’t afford to pay for no car,” Laura Elmore told us. She told Channel 11 that the tree that fell on her car is the city of Duquesne’s responsibility.

“It’s not my responsibility. That tree was here before I was born,” she said.

Channel 11 took her concerns to city manager Doug Sample.

“It’s the property owner that is responsible for the trees,” Sample said. “The City of Duquesne does not have any ordinance which would give the city authorization over those trees.”

It wasn’t the answer Laura Elmore wanted.

“I didn’t plant that tree, they did. So, why do they want to put it on the homeowners?”

Sample says the city very likely planted the trees when the neighborhood was built more than a century ago, but like sidewalks, once there it becomes the homeowner’s responsibility.

Laura has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years and says this is the first time she’s ever heard that and she plans to fight it.

“I would have had somebody who cuts my grass, he did it before, trim some of those branches off,” she said. “There’ll be a whole lot of people going to city hall.”

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