In my experience, with a little patience the local power company should come
around and take care of the situation.  Let them know you have a limb on a
live wire across your driveway and they should get to it pretty quick, I
would think.

I'm normally a very ambitious chainsawyer.  I whittled down an 8" diameter,
40 foot long limb deposited on my roof (the butt end stuck in the tree about
30 feet above the ground so, thankfully, only the tips of the branches
touched my roof--damage was limited to a couple of 2" diameter holes) by
Hugo until it was evident that any little more would send it crashing down
on my power feed, which stretches across a busy road--I let the power
company do the deed (which promptly ripped down the service drop but they
put it back up).  A wet tree leaning or lying on a power wire is one I'd
stay away from.

Cutting up the mess after the power company finishes is another story...

Signed, Cold wet feet.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Krugman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, September 17, 1999 11:28 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: F-Storm -- Angels abroad


Driving home at 5:30 pm in a torrential downpour, I was congratulating
myself
on having done all my tree work this summer, having cleaned out my
downspouts, located the source of the leak in the front hall and properly
positioned the pails, and secured all the porch furniture.

I pulled into the driveway with the rain thundering on the roof of the car
and spent a few seconds making sure that I parked away from any tree limbs
that might fall on it. I gathered my things and opened my umbrella for the
20
foot run to the kitchen door. When I turned around, there was a 100 yr old
tree lying in my driveway where I had passed 30 seconds before, and my power
line was under it. I hadn't heard a thing.

I am a lucky lucky girl.

-- In Good Shape in Montclair

PS - Looks like the BP Pignickers will have to park in the street! I don't
see this thing moving for a couple of days.... The electricity is still on,
just MIND THE WIRE!