Overnight weather brought down a large tree and power lines in New Jersey, causing traffic issues and leaving some residents without electricity, according to the report. The damage was concentrated in Mountainside, where crews spent the morning trying to figure out the safest way to clear the mess. As reported, the scene was on Coles Avenue, between Ackerman Avenue and Tanager Way, where the size of the fallen tree was plainly visible.
The tree came down out of the Watchung Reservoir, falling across the roadway during the storm the night before, according to the report. On one side of the road was the reservoir itself, and on the other side were homes, and as the tree came across it brought the power lines down with it. That combination of a heavy tree and live lines was what made the cleanup so delicate for the workers who arrived on the scene.
Crews from PSE&G were out at the location alongside employees from tree companies, taking a close look at the lines above them, as reported. Some of those lines were determined to be okay, but power lines were down and people were without power that morning. The tree company workers were seen walking into the Watchung Reservoir and coming back out again as they tried to determine exactly where they should start the process.
According to the report, chainsaws could be heard earlier in the morning, and then the crews shut them down. They wanted to make sure that PSE&G was comfortable with exactly how they were going to go about removing everything, given the downed power lines involved. The careful, stop-and-start approach reflected how much caution the situation demanded before any large section of the tree could be cut away.
The crews faced an added complication beyond the tree already lying across the road, as reported. There was another tree leaning against a third tree nearby, and the workers said they were all very concerned about it as well. That meant the removal effort was not just about the one fallen tree, but about managing the surrounding trees so that the work could be done safely for everyone at the scene.
Getting a clear picture of the damage from the air proved difficult because of the conditions, according to the report. A photojournalist put a drone up over the area, but it was a tough shot, since the crew was dealing not only with all of the trees but with fog as well. To manage that, the drone was kept a little lower in order to capture an aerial view of what the crews were dealing with on the ground.
The resident whose front yard the tree ended up in spoke about what he had been told, as reported. He said his daughter had talked with the tree workers, who estimated it might take about eight hours, which he felt was better than the three days he had feared. He noted that the same thing had happened about six weeks earlier, when a tree came out of the reservoir and stayed for a couple of days, and added that Coles Avenue is heavily used, including by bicyclists who have had to stop and turn around.