A split oak blocks the driveway under a downed line in Hot Springs
A heavy storm passes through Hot Springs in the middle of the night. The wind dies down. The rain stops. You open your front door and shine a flashlight into the yard.
A massive oak tree has split near the base. The trunk lies entirely across your concrete driveway. The branches cover the grass and block your vehicles.
Then you see the worst part of the scene. A thick black wire is pinned beneath the heavy wood. The line is stretched tight under the branches.
This wire is the service drop. Power flows through it from the utility pole on the street directly to the meter base on your exterior wall. When a tree pulls this wire down, you have two major problems at the same time.
A massive physical obstacle blocks your property. You also have a dangerous electrical hazard resting on the wet ground. The power to your house is out. Your cars are trapped.
This exact situation requires a specific sequence of events. You cannot clear the driveway yet. You cannot touch the branches. You have to make two separate phone calls in a strict order.
The first call handles the live electricity. The second call handles the broken wood. We want to explain exactly how this process works. We want you to know what happens when a tree hits a power line in Garland County.
Make your first call to the utility company
The utility company owns the electrical infrastructure. Entergy Arkansas operates the power grid across our region. You must contact them immediately.
When a storm knocks a tree onto a power line, the utility company needs to know about it right away. Your phone call helps them locate the exact point of failure on your street. Entergy Arkansas tells residents to “Report downed lines or damaged equipment by calling 1-800-9OUTAGE”.
You need to speak to the operator clearly. Tell the operator your street address. Tell the operator that a large tree has fallen directly onto the service line at your house. Describe exactly where the wire touches the ground or the wood.
The utility company will dispatch an assessment team or a line crew to your house. This crew takes full control of the electrical hazard. They have the training to handle it safely. They know how to cut off the power upstream at the street pole or the substation.
They determine when the area is safe for normal people to approach. You must wait for them. You cannot speed up this process.
Do not call a tree service to cut the wood before you call the utility to secure the wire. No professional tree company will touch a branch near a tangled wire until the utility crew clears the electrical threat completely.
Stay back and treat every wire as live
A fallen power line is a deadly threat to anyone nearby. The wire under the oak tree might look completely dead. The street might be completely dark. The wire could still have lethal voltage.
Electricity behaves in dangerous ways. It can travel directly through the wet wood of the oak trunk. It can travel through the damp soil around the branches. You do not have to touch the wire to suffer a severe shock.
You must keep your distance from the entire area. Entergy Arkansas tells residents to “Stay away from downed power lines”. The utility company also instructs people to “Never attempt to remove debris near power lines”.
This rule applies to you. This rule applies to your neighbors. Keep your family inside the house. Keep your dogs away from the front yard.
Do not touch twigs or leaves. Professional tree crews follow the exact same safety mandates. We understand the invisible dangers of electricity.
OSHA mandates that unqualified workers must “maintain the minimum approach distances of at least 10 feet from overhead power lines”. We enforce this rule on every job. Our emergency tree service page says it plainly: “Treat every wire as live. Do not touch a tree that is contacting a line, and do not move a limb that is lying across one.”
We wait in our trucks until the utility crew finishes. You must wait in your house.
What the utility crew removes and what the utility crew leaves
The utility line crew arrives with a single goal. They intend to restore electricity to your home. They restore the line.
The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension puts it plainly: “As always, never try to remove branches or trees from utility lines. Let the professionals do it.” The utility professionals will cut only the specific branches that interfere with their equipment.
The utility workers will pull the interfering limbs off the wires. They will string a new service drop from the pole to your house. They will reconnect the line to your meter base. They will restore the power to your home.
Then they will pack up their tools and drive away to the next outage. The utility company does not clean up the wood. They leave the cut branches scattered across your yard. They leave the massive oak trunk blocking your concrete driveway.
They leave the heavy limb resting against your roof. They leave the jagged, split stump standing in your lawn. Their job ends the moment the electricity flows safely again.
You now have the lights back on. You also have a massive pile of heavy wood to handle. This is the exact moment the electrical crisis ends and the physical cleanup begins.
Make your second call to our tree crew
You call us for everything the utility crew leaves behind in the yard. We handle the heavy wood. We handle the broken branches. You dial 501.538.1606 to reach Clower Tree Service.
We send our five-person crew to your property in Hot Springs. We drive a bucket truck to reach high branches safely. We tow a large wood chipper. We bring a full-size skid steer and a mini skid steer to lift massive logs.
We park our heavy equipment trailer on the street. Paul Clower looks over the property with you before any chainsaw starts. He inspects the downed oak tree. He looks at the remaining trees for hidden damage.
He agrees on a drop zone for the wood with you. He agrees on a safe access route for the machines across your lawn. Every estimate is free. We hand you a written estimate before we make a single cut.
Once the utility company declares the power line safe, we start the cleanup. We use the bucket truck to safely remove any broken limbs still hanging above the driveway. We cut the heavy oak trunk into manageable logs. We use the mini skid steer to lift the heavy pieces of wood into our trucks.
We run the smaller branches through the chipper. We clear the debris off your roof. We cut down the split tree that still stands in your yard. We leave your property clean and safe.
You can read exactly how our crew handles storm damage tree service after a heavy wind hits Garland County.
What needs an emergency response tonight and what waits for a scheduled visit
Some storm damage demands immediate attention in the middle of the night. A blocked driveway traps your vehicles. A massive limb threatens to crash through your living room ceiling.
Our emergency page states that a crisis happens when “A tree or large limb is resting on a roof, a wall, a vehicle, or a fence.” We respond quickly to these specific threats. We secure the physical hazard. We stop the tree from causing further destruction to your home.
We use our heavy machinery to lift the wood off your valuable property safely. Many fallen limbs look terrible but pose no immediate physical danger. These situations can wait for the sun to come up.
Our emergency page explains that “These can usually wait for a scheduled visit: limbs down in an open yard, a healthy tree that lost small branches, debris that is not blocking anything.” A pile of twigs resting in the grass is a daytime job. A cracked limb hanging over an empty field is a daytime job.
We can schedule a regular visit to clean up these minor messes. You also have to decide what to do with a damaged tree that survives the storm.
The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension provides guidance for surviving trees. They advise property owners that “If more than 50% of the crown is damaged, monitor over 2 year period. If damage much greater than 50%, consider removing the tree.”
We can help you evaluate a battered tree during daylight hours. We offer a complete tree removal service for trees that suffer fatal damage during a severe storm.
Take photographs for the insurance company before anything moves
You likely want your homeowners insurance to pay for this extensive cleanup. Insurance companies require clear proof of the damage. They need to see the exact state of your property immediately after the storm passes. They want to see the tree resting on the power line.
They want to see the heavy limb pressing against your roof. You must document the scene before the utility crew arrives. You must document the scene before our tree crew begins cutting up the wood.
Our emergency page instructs homeowners to “Photograph everything before anything is moved.” Stand at a safe distance from the wire. Use your phone camera to take clear pictures of the fallen oak tree.
Take pictures of the crushed fence. Take pictures of the blocked driveway. Take wide shots of the entire front yard to show the scale of the mess. Take close shots of the broken branches on your roof.
You need these images for your claim. You can learn more about when homeowners insurance pays for professional tree cleanup. You can also read about who pays for a fallen tree in Arkansas when a neighbor owns the tree.
You protect yourself from arguments with the adjuster by using these photographs. These photographs help speed up your insurance check.
Free estimates in Hot Springs and Garland County
We serve Hot Springs, Hot Springs Village, Malvern and all of Garland County. We bring ten years of local experience to every property. We are bonded and insured. We use our own machines to clear your property safely.
We provide a written quote for every emergency call. Before we arrive, stay inside your house and keep everyone away from the downed lines. When you are safe, tell us exactly where the downed tree rests on your property.
Our address is 363 Kaufman Rd, Hot Springs, AR 71913. Call 501.538.1606 to request a visit. You can send an email to info@clowertrees.com with your address. You can also visit our contact page to ask for a free estimate.