Neighbors say large tree caused continuous power outages in Mint Hill

MINT HILL, N.C. — Neighbors in a Mint Hill neighborhood said they lost power several times all because of a tree that they couldn't seem to get cut down.

Resident Mackenzie Jones said Duke Energy continued to trim the middle of the tree, but said that made it so top-heavy the branches fell, knocking out power to Jones' neighbors and the shopping complex behind her home.

“With this tree being here, it’s scary. And then, if the tree were to fall, we have six kids in the house. God forbid it landed where one of them were sleeping,” said Jones.

Duke Energy told Channel 9 it now has plans to remove the tree next week.

A company spokesperson sent us the following statement:

"We’ve completed several site visits to evaluate the tree in the past six months and determined the overall tree appeared healthy and structurally sound with no evidence of the new growth impacting the energized equipment. However, after crews removed the limb that caused today’s outage and evaluated the tree again, they determined there is some decay in the crown of the tree that could pose a threat to nearby power equipment.  

We will begin taking the tree down next week. The crew will chip the brush, cut the larger wood pieces into 2-3 foot lengths and stack it near the tree stump. 

As background, customer outages at this location over the past two years were caused by wildlife, equipment failure in a substation, a dig-in to a service line from a pool installer the customer hired and vegetation."

Cox Media Group