DeKALB | The past week’s gusty weather took a toll on Hopkins Park’s oak trees.

The park, created by the DeKalb Park District 70 years ago, lost about 20 trees, said Brad Garrison, assistant director of planning and development for the DeKalb Park District.

Trees fell or were moderately damaged in other areas, including Sweet Park on Roosevelt Street, but the greatest losses were the older oaks in Hopkins Park.

“Hopkins Park is definitely a priority,” Garrison said.

The park will be cleaned up and ready for the crowd in time for the Easter Egg Hunt Saturday, Garrison said.

The park district will replace the trees later in the fall, possibly with young oaks from DeKalb’s city nursery. The park district sets aside $10,000 a year to replace fallen trees and add new ones in the city’s parks.

“It’s been very successful,” Garrison said, describing the two-year-old program.

The last storm Garrison said he remembers with tree damage was in 2005. Twelve trees came down and had to be replaced.

NIU staff meteorologist Gilbert Sebenste said the windy weather was not at all unusual for spring in DeKalb. He said one or two major storms hit the town in an average year.

Wind gusts reached 60 to 70 miles per hour on DeKalb’s east side, Sebenste said. He blamed the damaging winds on a large macroburst – cooled air stemming from a thunderstorm. The macroburst damaged the roof on South Point Center and caused a partially constructed building on Ill. Route 23 to collapse.