FREDERICK COUNTY, MD - Crews throughout Frederick County, Maryland are out in full force cleaning up the mess Hurricane Sandy left behind.
"We've made great progress so far. We have a lot to do ahead of us with the debris to clean up, the drainage issues with all the leaves in the drainage ditches, we're going to have to clean a lot of that up so major work ahead of us," said Bill Routzahn, superintendent of Frederick County Highway Operation.
Routzahn says thousands of trees are still across county roadways.
"Just use caution," Routzahn said. "Especially after the wind storm we had, the trees are loose. You never know when they're going to fall, so use caution, and drive slow on the back roads. You never know when something's going to come down in front of you."
Crews are clearing them as fast as they can but have to wait for Allegany Power and Verizon to clean up wires.
Two trees, a transformer, wires, and a sign littered part of Old Frederick Road in Thurmont Wednesday afternoon.
About 20 roads in Frederick County are still closed due to downed trees or flooding. Officials say people need to be careful around wires and trees for everyone's safety.
"The transformers are knocked down, the wires are scattered throughout the trees, and all it takes it for somebody to fire up a generator or somebody charges a line, and it could activate that line while we're working on the tree, and that would be a disaster for us," Routzahn said.
Routzahn says it should take them at least a few more weeks to finish cleaning up.
