After wind and rain knocked a tree onto power lines at the entrance to Westville’s Beverly Hills district, Anthony Simmons worked with a surgeon’s dexterity to untangle the mess.
Torrential rains and gusts of wind were only part of the problem that caused a 60-foot Black Locust tree to snap, coming to rest on live electrical wires, and temporarily closing the busy intersection of Ramsdell and Fountain Streets around 10:30 a.m. Monday.
According to Simmons, lead foreman and expert line-clearer for the Lewis Tree Service, the tree exhibited signs of a diseased cavity which contributed to its collapse.
Contracted by the United Illuminating Company, workers arrived on the scene during the heavy rains to begin removal of the precariously leaning tree. Wires did not snap, but were stretched, as they bore the full weight of the sizable tree. There were no outages in New Haven due to the tree or to the storm, said UI spokesman Ed Crowder.
The tree was part of a small grove of towering black locusts at 11 Ramsdell St. The cost of the tree’s removal by UI contractors and subsequent clean-up by the city, will ultimately be the responsibility of the homeowner, according to a spokesperson at New Haven’s Department of Parks and Recreation and Trees.
David Sepulveda Photo
The city fire department strung up yellow emergency tape, and police held the perimeter, while Simmons and his colleagues tackled the tree.
A Lewis Tree Service worker said that it had been a busy morning after responding to a number of tree emergencies in the greater New Haven area. Performing an extremely dangerous and delicate operation, Simmons maneuvered the cherry picker’s bucket with amazing dexterity. Approaching the tree’s canopy from a variety of angles, he confidently severed limbs that formed a tangle of branches and tree segments as they thudded to the roadway.
Just as Simmons cleared the weight-stressed wires of the heaviest branches, the sun emerged in bright blue skies. City workers who were on standby moved in quickly to remove the mounded debris. Soon after, UI crews removed the yellow emergency tape.
