Ahead of strong storm, high winds tree trimming businesses busy across central NC

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- As the Triangle prepares for what could be a major weather event on Wednesday, tree trimming and removal companies across the area are busy with jobs.

These jobs include trimming, pruning, and removing trees that can cause damage to property or power lines when heavy winds roll through the area midday Wednesday.

"It will be a busy day potentially," said Duke Energy representative Jeff Brooks. "And it's hard to predict exactly where we'll see an outage pocket emerge. But the potential exists all across the Triangle as those winds come through tomorrow."

Brooks said there will be one thousand tree and line workers throughout the region who will be ready to respond in the event a tree falls on a power line and if outages are reported in the area.

Meanwhile, tree trimming services, such as Trees 4 Less, said educating customers is helpful when they're not aware of how to mitigate risk.

"People don't know what's going to happen before. They're not as knowledgeable," said Jesus Garcia. They're like it's just a tree and they don't know it's going to fall toward their house or anything. A lot of times, people just like to make sure they trim them beforehand. Get some of the weight off. Just the trees close to the house to take some weight off in case they do fall."

In Fuquay-Varina, a crew with Kenny's Tree Removal took down a 100-plus-year-old oak tree in the backyard of a resident's home.

"These are the first trees that tend to uproot due to being very close to the surface," said company owner Kenny Sanchez. "It's not if it's gonna fall. It's when it's gonna fall."

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There is also a process called topping in which crews remove top branches from the trees as opposed to completely removing the tree.

"What that does is take all the weight off. That helps it and keeps the tree where it's at. So during a storm, there's less chance of the tree falling," said Sanchez.

The NCDOT also has a plan in place to react to Wednesday's weather event if the elements cause any damage.

Additionally, the agency has paused all aerial work, it said, due to the threat of high winds and inclement weather.

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