Trees piled alongside roads have become a prominent feature in most Augusta neighborhoods.
In some areas the stacks of trunks, limbs, twigs and leaves extend out into the roadways, blocking lanes of traffic, covering sidewalks and spilling onto residential lawns.
The piles of wood are all that is left of what were the trees that provided shade for the homes in nearly every neighborhood in Richmond and Columbia counties.
But the force of Hurricane Helene in September reduced the stately oaks and pines into piles of rubble that nearly a month later still await the crews that were hired to come remove them.
Candace Slavens looked out Monday at the heap of wood lined up along the street in front of her home on Walton Way and recounted where each of the trees once stood in her yard.
She estimated six trees in her yard were blown over, and parts of other trees were also damaged. Some of the trees blown over in her neighborhood were more than 100 years old, she said.
Slavens, who has lived her entire life in Augusta, said this is the worst damage she has ever seen in her hometown.