Drought blamed for large number of trees falling on power lines

If you lost power at your home over the weekend and Monay morning, you can blame the high winds that accompanied the rainstorms.
And, you can also blame the drought we experienced over the last couple of years.
That combination created major problems for EPB work crews.

Gusty winds like most people in the Tennessee valley saw this weekend wouldn’t ordinarily knock down trees—especially not a hardwood.
But that was what caused most of the power outages in a series of storms that came through the area.

GEORGE MORGAN VEGETATION MGR. , EPB  “This is what appears to be a healthy black jack oak, but in..but instead If you look at the root ball, it’s very close to the trunk, that root ball should be 8-10-12 feet in diameter, instead its very close and the reason why is the drought.”

EPB has special crews that know how to handle that kind of power outage.

GEORGE MORGAN  “We’ve got 8 tree crews out right now working with line crews trying to get power restored.”

At times, it seemed like a constant battle with the elements…with electric power lines the number one target.

GEORGE MORGAN  “About the time we would get…the storm came in about 6 o’clock, 6:30. Crews worked through the night , got that restored, and then another storm came in yesterday evening about 6 or so, and went back up to a couple thousand people out, the crews worked all night ..And then again, early this morning another round of winds came through, and so at this we’re down to about 800 customers.”

One of the crews was working here on Crestwood drive near Altamont road. The steep terrain made getting to the fallen trees difficult. The lines were in a wooded area, and not near a roadway where heavier equipment could be used. It’s symptomatic of what this extremely wet spring has brought.
And it’s not over yet.

GEORGE MORGAN “We’ve had a lot of tree outages …a lot of trees fell through lines. Just this past month we’ve had about 200 uprooted tree outages…and we did in March as well. So, that’s trees when they just uproot..fall out of the ground and fall through the lines.”
At one time 2000 EPB customers were without power over the weekend, and about 800 homes were out this morning.
Crews are still working this evening.