Power cut to 900 homes as falling tree brings down cables in Telford street - pictures and video
Hundreds of homes in Telford were without electricity today after a tree came down in a Telford street, bringing down power cables, flattening a car and damaging summer house.
The tree came down at the junction of Station Road and Church Close in Madeley at about 10.40am this morning.
Twitter user @nimblewhaleblog posted a photo to report it to Telford & Wrekin Council:
Initially about 900 homes were left without power, but many of them had electricity supply restored within half an hour.
Western Power Distribution engineers were continuing to work to restore electricity to more than 120 affected properties left without power.
The council has said the road will be closed for most of the day while recovery work takes place.
One neighbour, from nearby Cottage Farm Close, who did not want to be named, said: "I heard it. It was like a tsunami. I ran to the front of the house and saw that it had fallen down.
"I was concerned for my neighbour as it had fallen on her car and summer house. It was frightening. It could have been the wall taken down."
Another added: "It is lucky nobody was killed. That tree has been dangerous for a long while. There's always branches falling off it. We've been left without electricity this morning. There's a lot of pensioners who live around here and we've had no heating."
Natasha Clarke, aged 22, saw the fallen tree from a taxi on the way to the train station.
The retail worker, of Madeley, said: "We went around the corner and this massive tree had fallen. It had destroyed all the bricks from the side of the wall.
"It was very shocking. You don't expect to see such a large tree come down. It's been wobbly for a while, but I think people will be gutted to see it go.
"There's quite a lot of housing in that area, so it's definitely going to affect people trying to head through Madeley. It took up most of a person's driveway on the other side."
A further 600 homes were also left without power in the Westbury area.
Western Power Distribution spokesman said: "We have had reports of an overhead line coming down in Westbury.
"We have had to isolate that part of the network for safety reasons and it is effecting about 600 properties in the Westbury and Rowton areas.
"We are hopeful most properties will be back on within the hour - it will be a bit longer for those directly near to the fault if it is that line that is feeding their properties."
