Wind and rain from storms threaten trees of the Triangle

As Hurricane Idalia made its way across the southeast on Wednesday, tree and energy crews were preparing for its impact on North Carolina.

Both Duke Energy and ArborMax Tree Service say trees are a blessing to the central part of the state. However, during storms, those trees can fall or break, causing major damage and power outages.

“In an urban environment, they can be deadly. If you have trees around your house, it's always a good idea to be aware and understand how dangerous they can be,” arborist Tim Robbins said.

Just a couple weeks ago, strong storms came through the area. Thoe weakened by high winds and rooted in shallow, saturated soil could be a threat when the next storm strikes.

“Some of the trees that didn't come completely down, maybe there's some fractures in the roots. The winds and rain that are coming with this storm just might be the final blow to those trees that have already been weakened,” Robbins said.

Duke Energy is watching out for trees that fall onto their power lines.

“The combination that leads to the most outages is when you have heavy rain that softens the ground and high winds that can then push over those trees, leading to those outages,” spokesperson Jeff Brooks said.

He said the company has 3,400 crews additional crews available to assist, if needed.

“We have hundreds of crews down in the Cape Fear region that are already there locally. We have thousands that are in eastern North Carolina and the central part of the state,” Brooks said.

He said there are staging areas in Jacksonville, New Bern and Wilmington.

“In Florida, we've moved our Midwest crews down to help in that area. In the Carolinas, we're moving crews from the western part of the state to the eastern part to be able to help with outage restoration there,” Brooks said.

While Idalia was not expected to bring widespread outages in the Triangle, they cannot be ruled out.

“Right now, we do expect those outages are going to be more east of I-95 and probably most contained in the southeastern portion of the state and northeastern portion of South Carolina,” Brooks said.

Nonetheless, Robbins said people in areas expecting fewer impacts should not underestimate the dangers of falling trees.