Downed Trees Cause Outages, Headaches Across Central Oklahoma

Most weather emergencies Tuesday were caused by broken or downed trees.

Under the weight of the ice, trees across the metro area snapped, taking down power lines.

In the most extreme cases, large sections of branches fell on homes and entire trees were uprooted.

Jeff Proctor, of Edmond, was woken up three times overnight as the tree in his backyard continued to break and fall onto his home.

“All we heard was a big boom and came outside and the first half of the tree had just fallen onto the house. Then maybe about a half hour later we heard another big crash, and the other side of the tree fell on the fence. About maybe a half hour or so later, another big crash, fell onto the other side of the fence,” Proctor said.

For non-emergency downed trees, Oklahoma City residents can text the city at 405-252-1053, or send an email to action.center@okc.gov.

In cases where a downed tree causes an emergency, call 911.

Oklahoma City Fire Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson recommends leaving any investigating or cleaning up to the professionals.

“Don't go trotting around in your backyard looking for it to investigate. There could very well be a downed power line back there. There could be trees that are in the process of falling or could fall on you if you go outside to investigate. Just don't. Of you think you have an emergency, you do smell smoke, call 911. Let us come out and check that for you,” Fulkerson said.