Every year, as spring rolls into summer, and hurricane season approaches, homeowners in hurricane-prone parts of the US begin to debate how to manage their trees, and especially how to limit over-growth and excessive vegetation near their power lines.
What Are the Consequences of Insufficient Tree Management During Hurricane Season?
As trees are whipped about during the strong winds of hurricanes, tropical storms, or other severe storms, and the root systems are simultaneously made unstable by heavy rains and flooding, the risk of broken branches, or entirely toppled trees, increases significantly. These broken branches or downed trees can fall on homes, cars, or even people, causing injuries, damage, death, and destruction. But they can also fall directly on power lines, or into roadways that emergency services need to access hurt or trapped people and which power repair crews need to use in order to access damaged or dangerous power lines.
Power restoration in Florida after Hurricane Irma in 2018, for example, was slower than it could have been, in large part due to fallen trees. Uncollected debris and flooding were also cited as reasons for the delayed restoration, but fallen trees were a huge factor in recovery after the storm. Power lines and power poles were particularly impacted by fallen and damaged trees in the hurricane.
“Our forensics tells us that 70 percent of the poles that broke were due to a direct impact from a tree, and most of those were from outside the right-of-way,” said Jason Cutliffe, who is director of power quality and reliability for Duke Energy Florida.
There can be some controversy around tree maintenance and removal due to the fact that many trees are protected by municipal tree ordinances and county regulations, but the fact remains that the decision to NOT trim and remove trees has definite consequences in hurricane-prone areas, and these consequences need to be considered.
How Can This Situation Be Improved in the Future?
Florida Power & Light has been developing a program to try to develop underground power lines. The company has discovered that underground lines go out less often than the overhead lines. In the Florida House of Representatives, some officials are pushing for statewide rules for managing tree populations and vegetation across Florida.
Here in Ohio, we will be watching and hoping for as little damage as possible in this, and every, upcoming hurricane season. Though we are too far inland to have to deal directly with hurricane damage, we have occasionally had to deal with the remnants of tropical systems, and we regularly have to deal with the heavy rains and high winds that can come from strong thunderstorms, so it’s important for us to consider tree trimming and removal here in Cincinnati, as well. It’s a great reminder that good tree management is a safety issue, and taking good care of our trees helps to keep us all safer in extreme weather.
If Florida needs tree service companies to assist, arborists from across the country will be on call and at the ready to help with tree removal and management after any natural disaster or significant storm. But here in Cincinnati, if you are in need of tree trimming or tree removal services, please use our contact form or call us at 513-528-4167.
