Power Outages Vegetation

Power out on the lane here this morning. Has to be the darned vines that grew up the guy wire all the way up to the primary lines and insulators. Tons of dew, been foggy every morning for days, high humidity etc. Looks like wild grapes, those vines are full of water. I drive past this pole every day and its our land this is coming from. Problem is, when I noticed this, no way I'd go near it, forgot to call the power company to clear it. Work takes all of my attention lately. Once they do I'll have to remember to keep this area clear. It's along the lane here and behind the adjacent property owner, easy to miss. It must have tripped the breaker. Can't imagine what would happen if one took a set of loppers to it if energized.

Back up power got me a hot cup of tea, favorite vermont bread company english muffin toast w/strawberry preserves, and hot shower this morning. I'd have to make eggs on the bbq. Good to go til they get it restored. Line truck just pulled in. Should be an easy one for them.

Anyone have any outage stories related to vegetation causes ?

I have never seen so many vines as of late. They are all over NY. If the land is not in use they take over everything, cover trees completely and many of the telephone/cable lines are covered along my route to work, as well as dead trees leaning up on those lower lines. Forestry outfits can stay busy here a long time and the power company is good about this, just it is becoming a lot to keep up with lately.

The power lines have a device called a recloser, it will trip, then wait about a second, then trip, etc, three times. This is why you will see the lights come back on a few times, then go off. They will usually burn a small thing like a vine off, so might be more.

I've seen pics of vine-covered power lines in the deep south. They've got that mess called Kudzu that grows at a wildfire pace. Remember seeing one pic where the poles AND lines were fully covered in vines for well over 100'!!

Around here, the vast majority of our trees are very weak; Quaking Aspen. It's not unusual for a dead limb to break off, or even for a whole (dead) tree to go down with no wind at all. ...And sometimes it's beaver that cause the trees to fall.

Never been to NY, so couldn't say what it might be. However, spent the first 30+ years of my life near the Texas Gulf Coast, and everyone recently saw how power can disappear there! :shock:

Doesn't do any good to call the power company here. They won't come out until there's an outage. Our line was installed about 1938-39. Some of it was run across fields, as that was the shortest route, and it avoided hedge row lined roads. A few years back they moved part of it out to the road. But there's another little section close by which is still back away from the road, along a little gully which has become over grown. They fix the line, a hired crew comes and does some clearing, and life goes on, until the next time! Just in the last few years, along that section, one of the lines broke, and fell in the neighbors back yard!

Sounds like you have "Virginia Creeper". Here in Iowa also.

I guess if you get tired of the power outages you could spray some roundup on it on a dry day. After all, they are your weeds!

A few years ago there was a small tree limb touching a primary near our mailbox, I could see the contact point glowing at night. Called the power company to have them trim it....they said we don't do that anymore, only come out when power goes out. They only have a couple line crews anymore in our area. One of the guys told me years ago "buy a generator if there is a major storm the power will be out a while". He was right.

No problem with vegetation on the guy wire on the pole in front of our house. The guy wire rotted off at ground level a while back. Have called 3 or 4 times and they said we were on a list of work that has to be done. Would like to see the he list as this has been over a year now. Pole standing with no support !

They are if the power company does not own the land or whatever easement/rights they have under their lines. Problem is when you have a neighbor like this guy, I avoid people like that, they are nothing but trouble. I will in the future keep the area clean, seeing the power company has a record of something now.

If you read the account on facebook, (I don't do facebook) they have done a fine job of going public with things that make the town circle their wagons and make things difficult for others. There is no call to deal with a problem like that, right, wrong or indifferent. He assaulted the neighbor, was arrested 2x for this, one of which I witnessed when coming home from work. He's a 101st airborne veteran of Korea, so I am sure even as an old coot, he's capable of killing, or should be considered to be. I am not afraid of him or being on our land to maintain it, just that I have to be extremely careful in my affairs given security clearances I have and must maintain for my job. I just wave when I pass by this person and keep going. I've already experienced a bad situation with the other neighbor and am very glad they no longer reside here and won't be back given the tenant caused a fire that damaged the house badly enough it likely won't be repaired.

I agree with you, but there is more to it.
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I figured that would have happened, knowing this, but it tripped once and stayed off.
They cleared near the lines so nothing touching now, took em 15 minutes. I'll clear under there this week if time allows.

Tell them it looks like it is touching one of the power line wires,and might be electrified .Then they will have to come.I had one in a tobacco patch one time,and they came right out and just snipped it off.Was not needed,and was in my way any way.Mark

Had a branch fall on the lines here a few years ago. Called the power company and told them about it and that it was arching. I gave them the address and they sent out a service truck to check it. I watched for over an hour and nobody came. I called them again and they said the service guy never found anything. I told them I never saw any service guy come by. The lady on the phone said the service guy was back home and they weren't sending him out again. I told her that that was ok with me but when he came out the next time he better bring the fire truck with him(the service guy was also the volunteer fire chief). The branch was hanging by a transformer going to an abandand house and about 2 acres of weeds. He did come out at that point and it was a good thing he did because the wind was just starting to come up and it was swinging and arching real good when he got to the correct address.

Steven

Power went down here this afternoon. Went on line on my phone and reported it. Power.company texted me to accept report. Later texted a restoration time. Later (about 2 hours) texted me that power was back on, and that cause was "trees." A couple years back they had a tree company clean up under lines, and the nuisance outages dropped dramatically. Looks like trimming time again.

Growing up in northern NH we never EVER lost our power. Siblings and others of the same age all agree. My explanation is that there were few trees along the roadsides do to farmers keeping the vegetation down. Now all the fields are grown up to trees that have branches hanging over the wires.