Tree or Limb on a Power Line? What to Do (and Never Do)

Of everything a storm can do to a tree, this is the one that gets people hurt. A limb lying across a power line, or a whole tree leaning into one, looks like a cleanup problem and is actually a life-safety emergency. The single most important thing to understand is this: you cannot tell by looking whether a line is live, and you have to assume it is.

What to do

1. 1Assume the line is energized, always, even if the power in your house is out and even if it looks like a cable or phone line.
2. 2Get everyone back at least 35 feet and keep them there. Electricity can energize the ground around a downed line, so distance is your protection.
3. 3Call your utility and 911. In our area that is Georgia Power or your local EMC. Report a tree or limb on their line, they prioritize these.
4. 4Keep clear of anything the tree or line is touching, fences, a car, standing water, a chain-link gate. Any of them can become energized.
5. 5Wait for the utility to confirm the line is de-energized before anyone, including a tree crew, touches the tree.

What you must never do

• Never touch or try to move the tree, the limb, or the line, not with your hands, not with a pole, not with a wet or dry branch.
• Never assume it is just a cable or internet line. People die making that guess.
• Never drive over a downed line or park near one.
• Never use water near the contact point.
• Never let a general handyman or an uninsured crew cut a tree off a line. That is utility and specialist work.

Who actually handles what

This trips people up, so it is worth being clear. The power company owns and controls the line. They, or a contractor working under them, de-energize it and clear the tree from their equipment. A tree service does not touch a tree in contact with a live line, period. Once the utility confirms the line is safe and the tree is clear of it, that is when we step in to remove the rest of the tree, deal with what came down on your house or yard, and clean up. If the tree also hit the structure, that overlaps with storm damage tree removal, and the whole response runs through our 24/7 emergency tree service.

After the utility clears the line

Once power crews have made the scene safe, the tree still has to come off the roof, out of the yard, or off the driveway, and that is a job for a crew with rigging and storm experience. We run priority dispatch during storm events for exactly this, tarping roofs, clearing egress, and hauling the debris, as part of storm damage tree removal across the coast.

No tree, no limb, and no amount of hurry is worth stepping inside 35 feet of a line you cannot prove is dead.

We cover the barrier islands and the mainland, from the exposed lots on Tybee Island through Chatham County, and the line we never cross is the one with electricity in it. Call the utility first, then call us for everything that comes after.