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Concur, they have huge fire breaks they put high tension lines in, where the easement is easily 100' to either side of the lines. This is in Louisiana. When there's a hurricane these lines still break, but not because of trees. During heavy storms, smaller trees hit smaller (480? Some KV?) Lines that go along highways to residences. A high tension line down means a few days without power (about 3-4), a tree on a lower voltage line is usually fixed within hours.

They go through and remove damaged trees near the easements of the highway lines, as well as branches that could break into lines.

As an aside we lived on the same section of grid as the sheriff, and our power was rock solid for a few years, then he left office and now our power is better than average (at least better than our neighbors who's power line cones from the other direction).




> During heavy storms, smaller trees hit smaller (480? Some KV?)

Residential distribution voltage varies by utility but it’s usually in the medium voltage range, 5kV to 35kV, with 13.8kV being common.




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