In Virginia where I live the power companies will cut out big sections of the trees so they do not fall on the power lines. This time the power was only out for four hours roughly, but it gets cold without back up heat.
Here in the PNW we seldom have weather this nasty, soooo there would be a huge green outcry if the power companies started clear cutting a safety swath, especially if there were any bird or squirrel nests involved. I just watched a news snippet where a local questioned why we didn't require electrical companies to install all underground transmission with no regard to cost or who would ultimately pay that cost.
In Portland, unless there is an outage, it is up to the home owners to keep their trees trimmed and away from the power lines. A neighbor across the street from one of our rentals failed to do so and his tree limbs took out the main line, plus pulled the supply line from our duplex, leaving my tenants without power for several days and the cost of reconnection was on me, with electricians in short supply.
We kept one of our 122 year old Dougas Firs professionally trimmed and it still uprooted in soaked soil and a high gusty wind, taking out the power to half the neighborhood for most of one day when it blew away from our house and across the street , taking out the power line on that side but narrowly missing the house, only because it had been shortened.
With no notice or discussion, the morons at the city planted a Maple tree in my right of way that I maintain, between the sidewalk that I maintain and the street, immediately under the phone, cable, and power lines. When I called and complained, I was told that although I have title for our property and by law have to maintain it, they can do as they please with the portion covered by my sidewalk and right of way.
To add insult to injury, I recently got a notice in the mail reminding me that I was responsible for keeping the trees on my property trimmed and that the maple tree that they planted had a limb obscuring a new parking sign that they recently installed. It reminded me that a permit was required for me to trim the trees in the parking and this first notice was a courtesy notice but further infractions would result in a fine.
Lots of folks still without power attesting to some of the short myopic vision involved.
37F @ 85% RH, partially cloudy, and predicted to reach 48F. The snow is melting but still lots of it drifted/piled around.
Our power has stayed on, but I ran by UPS, the liquor store for some more 190 proof, and both rentals to check on my tenants. The power was back on at both, but one had been without power for two days and the UPS store was with out power, as were several traffic signals.
The Jeep laughed at the drifts and did some hopping and dancing getting across some deeper ones, but never wavered or lost way as it kept digging with all four paws.
The electric Ford Focus sits in the driveway but I did push the snow off the top and hood with a broom and turned on the defroster to deice it. I maybe should have just left it on during the storm, since it is plugged into the charger.
One thing for sure, the Focus isn't going anywhere until some snow melts, because the drifts around it are deeper than its belly pan.
