Crews Remove Trees Before Storm Hits - NEWS10 ABC: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports

Crews Remove Trees Before Storm Hits

In the front of Benjamin Castle's house on Adam's Street in Delmar sits a rotting tree. That tree's branches hang over power lines that connect to hundreds of homes in the area.

Its rotting trees like the one on Castle's lawn that may be the first to be ripped down from the powerful winds expected from Hurricane Sandy.  Those trees have the possibility to rip down power lines, damage homes, and block off streets.

"By taking care of this now we could actually prevent hundreds of people from being without power because of this small little issue," said Matthias Keib, owner of Advantage Tree Service.

Keib's company has been contracted to remove trees and trim branches all throughout the area. However, with the storm on its way, they were forced to move quicker than expected on many of their jobs.

"This is an emergency medical road for the town of Bethlehem, so the emergency vehicles would have to find a different route and that could pose an issue," Keib said. 

"Secondly it is next to power lines which could pose another issue and the third thing is there are elderly in the homes. The last thing we'd want is for them to be blocked so they can't get out in the event of an emergency inside the house," Keib continued.

While Castle said he doesn't know what to expect from Hurricane Sandy, he is grateful the tree is being removed before the brunt of the storm hits the area.

"I'm grateful they are doing this, power might be out a whole week, we could lose all our food and that could be a real problem," said Castle.

Companies like Advantage Tree Service will be working after the storm leaves the area to clean up trees that may be in harms way.