Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's vine infestation to blame. Storm itself was rather short, over in 1 hr, with some gusts of wind. A lot of mature trees were fine, we noticed younger trees and branches were more vulnerable from our driving around last night. GW pkwy was closed, likely due to falling trees. Every time I drive on DC metro highways I see trees inundated by vines, literally choked. These trees do not survive storms, they are leaning already, and I am not surprised at all they fall into the roads. There is zero effort to remove or control the vines, it's only going to get worse. Even if all power lines were buried, trees will continue to fall into the roads blocking traffic/injuring ppl, not to mention people's homes and cars. There are volunteer groups that come to cut the vines at the root every year in late winter/early spring before leaves come in in some parks.. Not enough, can't depend on a handful of volunteers.

Um, no. Have you driven through Wesley Heights, Kent or Foxhall? Vines have nothing to do with the destruction.

In this specific case, this was a storm with down gusts (sort of like milder version of tornado). Vines or no vines if wind is that strong and blowing in one direction even healthy trees may fall down. It's why damage seems to be localized, like 1 block would get lots of down branches and trees, while 3 blocks over it's totally fine.

Anonymous wrote:Never gonna happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's vine infestation to blame. Storm itself was rather short, over in 1 hr, with some gusts of wind. A lot of mature trees were fine, we noticed younger trees and branches were more vulnerable from our driving around last night. GW pkwy was closed, likely due to falling trees. Every time I drive on DC metro highways I see trees inundated by vines, literally choked. These trees do not survive storms, they are leaning already, and I am not surprised at all they fall into the roads. There is zero effort to remove or control the vines, it's only going to get worse. Even if all power lines were buried, trees will continue to fall into the roads blocking traffic/injuring ppl, not to mention people's homes and cars. There are volunteer groups that come to cut the vines at the root every year in late winter/early spring before leaves come in in some parks.. Not enough, can't depend on a handful of volunteers.

Um, no. Have you driven through Wesley Heights, Kent or Foxhall? Vines have nothing to do with the destruction.

Anonymous wrote:The tree canopy rules and the costs to prune trees is a big factor here. Huge trees do not belong along roads and power lines. The reality is they have probably been there for a long time and the city's rules probably prevent them from being removed. Pepco butchered a ton of trees after the Derecho but they probably should have just removed them. Large old trees need maintenance. A lot of the downed branches should have already been removed. But that costs a lot of money and most homeowners aren't will to spend. The city now will only plant certain varieties of trees along sidewalks/roads so they do not grow to large and the roots do not crack the sidewalks and roads. But that doesn't help the existing trees.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Been chatter and workers “studying” this issue for a few years now but am hoping this finally gets the job done. I know some areas are already in ground but it would be great if this finally moves this forward for a wide swath of residences.

The cost to do this would be astronomical, with all of that cost being passed on to the local taxpayers. I know a lot of people on this board say they don't mind paying extra taxes if it means better schools, better infrastructure, better whatever - but when it actually happens they're all up in arms. Just look at how many people are complaining about their exploding property taxes now! Just wait.

Anonymous wrote:The tree canopy rules and the costs to prune trees is a big factor here. Huge trees do not belong along roads and power lines. The reality is they have probably been there for a long time and the city's rules probably prevent them from being removed. Pepco butchered a ton of trees after the Derecho but they probably should have just removed them. Large old trees need maintenance. A lot of the downed branches should have already been removed. But that costs a lot of money and most homeowners aren't will to spend. The city now will only plant certain varieties of trees along sidewalks/roads so they do not grow to large and the roots do not crack the sidewalks and roads. But that doesn't help the existing trees.

Anonymous wrote:Correct me but I thought buried power lines meant that when there are issues they have to dig and that means longer outages, more costly and so on. Is that not right?

Anonymous wrote:Buried lines don’t necessarily matter in a storm like yesterday and like the derecho. We have buried power lines, but when the transformer goes BOOM, our power goes out anyway.