We had an electrical storm last Saturday afternoon (15 Dec) that came with strong wind gusts, rain and hail. Later we discovered that a large branch from our large Liquid Amber tree had broken off and fallen onto our neighbour's driveway. Fortunately there was not a car underneath or trapped. Together with a large area of northern suburbs of Sydney, we lost power for more than 24 hours.
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| The fallen branch did not appear large from our side. |
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| But the neighbour's driveway was totally blocked. |
We rang the SES (State Emergency Services). As expected, they were inundated with calls and ours was a minor problem in comparison with many urgent cases where properties were damaged. Still, they were able to come first thing on Monday morning. Their task was to clear free up the driveway and prevent the branch caught up in the tree from falling and injuring people.
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| A man was sent to the top of the broken branch, hauled up by the crane. |
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| The branch was broken up piece by piece, each brought down by the crane. |
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| On the ground three men cut the branches into manageable sizes. |
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| Cleared driveway |
In an hour it was all done and the driveway was cleared.
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| Where the branch broke. |
Some of the debris were mulched but large pieces are left on the neighbours' lawn. We will arrange for these to be cut up and moved to the kerbside to be collected by the local Hornsby Council,
Come to think of it, it's quite scary. Fortunately you are not harmed KM :)
ReplyDeleteI met an SES guy some years ago and he advised me to always have the SES number on my phone, as in an emergency, you don't want to be running around looking for their number. Good advice. I still have their number on my phone in case one dark night my roof blows off.
ReplyDeleteLike what Luke has commented, it can certainly be a scary affair as your Liquid Amber tree looks like the tall and sprawling Rain Forest Tree which we find in abundance on roadsides and parks in Singapore. But this one is by your house and it is a miracle that there are also no collateral damages.
ReplyDeleteThe number we call here for such emergencies is 995 for the SCDF (instead of 999 for the police)- so easy for us to remember.
Apart from the inconvenience of losing your electrical power, I was wondering what would be the cost that this episode would set one down in Australia!
SES is free !!!! We just pay the taxes, lah.
ReplyDeleteKM