Power Lines Down Over My Fence

At 10:02pm I received a text from my utility company "we are aware of a power issue at or near 1420 Brookdale Dr, affecting 52 customers. Estimated repair completion by 1:25 am - actual time may vary". Power was back on at 1:49am after the hounds and dog inspected their back yard.

Of course when that text hit my phone, that is always recharging in the kitchen, the hounds, the dog and I were dead to the world. We did not hear a thing. In fact I got up a little after midnight to get something to drink and didn't notice the two trucks with headlights on parked at the corner of my property and my neighbors. I realized the power was off when I opened the refrigerator door but thought nothing of it and went back to bed. I did not notice the text on the phone which is on the counter by the fridge. 

Another hour passed and I am back up again because I can hear people talking outside. I get up and walk to the patio door where I can barely see what I think is a huge tree hanging over my fence!!

With clear skies and nearly full moon I grabbed my down jacket, some shoes and went out to see what was going on. It was a long time from the time I got up to this photo. They were stringing some power line extremely high above the trees. I wonder if that had something to do with deviating the power off the fallen lines. The power lines saved my fence from being destroyed. The man in the camouflage coat told me later, as we watched another guy cut up the tree, he knew how expensive just one section of that fence was so they tried their best to keep things in tact. I appreciate that.

They had to raise the fence post a little to get that section of fence out cleanly. He even handed me the six screws that he took out of both fence posts to pull the section out. I figured when I first saw it, they would just cut a section out with saws.

They started by cutting from the top of the tree and worked their way back to the fence. It was solid wood but it was the only tree out of all that line my back yard, that had no leaves and had been trimmed back years ago. One large limb was holding the tree truck up off the ground. He cut through that trunk as much as possible. The guy I was standing with went to get one of their long poles and he was able to lift the section of tree on the power lines. Once that tree lifted you could hear the part of the tree that was rotting, break apart.

The hounds and the dog had been so good since I got up, as they stayed in the bedroom with the door closed. They never barked even with all the action going on outside. I put the section of fence in both posts but until I can pound that one post back down to ground level, I cannot fit the horizontal pieces into the post tightly. So I put that section up the best I could so the hounds and the dog could come out and inspect the yard plus relieve themselves. I was hoping that Watson would not jump up on that section of fence, along with Henry.

While they were trying to get the section of fence out, they asked if the poles were in concrete. I didn't see how they were able to raise that post up that much but it will be easy to get it back down to where that mark is back at ground level. I might call and have the fence company do that for me.

There is some nice solid dry firewood. 

While I looked around and took photos, the utility crew was at the next utility pole and was pulling those top two power lines tighter. It was amazing to stand there and see those lines tighten up like string.

Considering everything that happened I am really lucky there was no damage to the fence and the power lines. That is near the spot that had to light pole in my yard (I cut down 3 weeks after I moved in) for the security light, wired underground to the house and to a fuse box next to my washer inside the kitchen closet. I can't even imagine what would have happened if that light were still standing and turned on when the tree fell putting the lower power lines over my fence.

It was time .... to release the hounds and the dog. In 34° weather I left the patio door open to give them a clear path outside because I knew they would be sprinting. The patio light was turned on. They were moving so fast once they were in the yard, my camera was not set up correctly to catch their speed.

Of course Walter is always cautious and doesn't jumping into anything until he looks around, sniffs the air and makes sure the water is deep enough to jump in.

Watson and Henry had no interest in jumping on that loose section of fence because no one is on the other side of the fence they want to see. They were interested in the wood I had moved in front of the fence to block them from getting close to it. You might notice that Watson grew another couple of inches since the blog post today.

Once Walter gets going he can sniff with the best of them.

I could tell by the way the power lines looked I was close, along with 51 other customers, of having the power turned back on. I am sure a few were noticing and wondering how cold their house was going to get by the time the power came back on. My house was down to only 62° by the time they turned it back on.

Just like I found out a few years ago up north ... the utility company is responsible for cutting back the trees away from their power lines 10' but the property owner is responsible for removing the wood that is left on the ground. Back in 2017 I blogged about that operation here. It was great stuff to haul into my burn pile that year.

Honestly I was shocked that I got any of the screws back when they took them out of the fence posts to get that section of fence out. I also never knew how long they were and was curious when I noticed I had backed out a couple when I got my mower too close mowing next to the fence.

It's 2:58am, the hounds and the dog have been back in the dark bedroom sleeping while I wrote this post. Once they had inspected their yard and came back inside, they ran straight to the bedroom and back to sleep. When I first saw the tree laying across the fence, held up by the power lines, I figured it might be an "all-nighter" for me. Due to the professionalism of the CenterPoint Energy crew, they were finished just a few minutes past their estimate they made at 10:02pm. My fence was also in tact with the original screws available to put that once section back in place.

BTW ... that street address in their text is mine.  LOL

All is good here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.