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Broken branch hanging over power line
bblackmon
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My tree branch just snapped after Hurricane Harvey passed.. what is the best way to remove the branch personally because I cannot afford someone to come out and do it.
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And if it does move the three feet and contact the wire, it's going to be dangerous. Call the power company.
Unless you're a trained and certified linesman, do not fuck around with or near electrical lines. These are not friendly power cables that will turn off when they detect a sudden power surge like the plugs in your house. These lines are on the other side of the circuit breakers.
If you're absolutely dead set on doing this, which is a dumb dumb dumb idea that could quite easily lead to you dying in a horribly unpleasant manner, use a wood ladder, the thickest leather gloves you've got and rubber soled shoes/boots. Distance from the line isn't going to help you, because electricity moves faster than you do so by the time you see it sparking you're already eating volts, so get close enough to the branch to move it with your hands (as opposed to trying to prod it down with a stick or something which is likely to knock the original branch into the power line).
But, once again, doing this yourself is a dumb idea that could kill you. And as it kills you, it's going to hurt like a bitch the entire time.
Source: growing up with a master electrician as a father. I watched him wire good sized buildings from the first breaker box to the last outlet cover and helped him do a lot of other stuff. But one thing I never saw him do when it came to electricity was fuck around with overhead electrical lines.
Seriously, call the fire department or call the power company. Both of these groups are better trained and equipped to clear debris from a power line than you are, regardless of what you've read on a forum or watched on youtube.
Any charge that they set up (which I don't believe they will considering the recent weather) will be substantially less than you'd see from an ambulance ride and a stay in a hospital.
Do not in the best of times try to do this, and many times moreso when emergency services are stretched thin.
If it does break, stay extra away and call the power company again to clarify that your threatened line is now a downed line, this will make it a higher priority but it could still be a while before it's fixed, it may be a good idea to find somewhere to stay in that case.
My men keep a 3 foot clearance when it comes to power lines.
I doubt you have an articulated lift to go up and over. You cannot work safely under the line, and the PPE required is a full body suit rated for 200 amp panel work. They say with electrical 1 in 100 poor practices leads to a near miss 1 in 10 near misses leads to an incident with injury and 1 in 10 incidents leads to a fatality.
City power agency is responsible for everything up to your breaker box. Don't fuck with it. You probably have at least 2 120V legs wired into there and your regular load would power your A/C, washer/dryer, other appliances, lights, tv, etc.: way more than could kill you. If you called out an electrician he'd probably tell you to call the power co. Call the power company. Unfortunately you're probably SOL as they likely have bigger things to deal with right now if you haven't actually lost service.
I'd be surprised if there was a municpality where this was not the case. If that line isn't "theirs" you could tap it and bitmine all day for free. Everything from the meter to the street is probably their property and their problem.
CALL THE POWER COMPANY!!!!
of course if it's like a 8" dia. oak branch or something, yeah, call the power company
Here is a diagram
The problem is the branch could touch the powerline.
which will result in the following.
spoiled because it is shocking.
And it is a very real risk. I'm sure this situation has already resolved one way or another and I hope the OP is all right.
ah see I had imagined the branch was detached from the tree and the heavier part was on the fence. The same situation had happened at my house a couple years back and I just pivoted the branch so it was no longer over the power line, then pulled it back away and cut it up
For everyone else saying it's the power company's problem you are 110% correct.
EVERYTHING up to your meter on your house is theirs. It's this way everywhere in the world.
My dad is also a master electrician and I've seen him do some seriously shady shit with electricity but never ever touch anything with overhead lines including the drop to your house.
I got to go out to a call with him during a windstorm and we found a compromised cable that had basically half a tree on it and was "disconnected" but even still we stayed in the truck and waited 3 hours for the "power gods" (what he called BC Hydro) to arrive and say "yeah it's safe".
Yay you are alive!