Backyard Wires Down

Last night I woke up from a loud unusual sound in the backyard. I seemed to know immediately that a large tree branch had come down and probably took the electric wire off the side of the house. I got my glasses and looked out the back window. The wires looked different but I couldn't tell why. I checked the electric power which was still on so I went back to bed. I thought maybe I heard something else.

This morning I checked the backyard and indeed there was a very large tree branch on the ground and it was right on top of our power line which was actually torn off the side of our house but stayed connected. The power line was on the ground for much of the length of the yard. 

I called the power company and reported a down power line on our property. Niagara Mohawk take that very seriously and within the hour two technicians arrived at our home and inspected the downed line in our yard. They called for another tech and waited. There are company rules that state someone from the company must stay with the downed power line because of the potential danger to people. The third tech arrived about another hour later and the three of them discussed the situation at length and were not sure as to how to proceed because they thought the power connection was not in the right place on the wall. I described to them the several previous times the power company had been here to reconnect the power line over the years because of fallen tree branches.

In the meantime I moved the grill and trash cans out of the way. The three technicians then called another truck crew to do the repair. The third tech left and the original two stayed to monitor the fallen power line. 

About an hour later two guys arrived with a ladder on their truck. These were a couple of young guys and I talked with them a little and explained the situation. One of the guys said he had been in our yard before and remembered the red barn in the back. Then they talked for a bit with the two technicians who left the yard to them. I thanked the two techs as they walked out to their two trucks.

I was out front talking to a couple of neighbors when the two guys got their ladder out and fixed everything in about ten minutes. They then explained what they did and everyone was happy. I thanked them as they headed out. They fixed the power line exactly as it had been fixed the other times. I'm just glad we never lost any power during this incident.

After they all left I cut up the tree branch. It was all done by lunch.