A tree fell on Ballinger

Tree on power lines at 190th and Ballinger
Photo by Heather McLaughlin

Here's the tree that caused the problems on Ballinger Way and 190th on Saturday. Besides taking out the power to all the surrounding households, the tree and then the work to repair the lines and restore power meant that bus routes and traffic had to be routed around that section of Ballinger well into the evening hours.

Heather McLaughlin, who took the photo, reports:

According to the SCL website, it originally caused 71 households to be without power, but had gone up to 101 before it was repaired. We walked down to take a look at it and got to meet some of our neighbors. Nothing like a crisis to bring people together. One of the people I spoke with said it happened about 11:45am and that the tree was on fire for a short time after it landed. The fire department was the first to respond to 911 calls and then police to reroute traffic.

The tree has been removed, power restored to all households, and traffic normalized on Ballinger Way. Bus service returned to a normal schedule on Sunday morning.