'Thirsty' tree collapses closes Glenwood Ave, crews worked overnight to reopen

Power began to return late Friday to a sweaty stretch of Raleigh's Glenwood Avenue.

Hundreds of customers spent hours without air conditioning after a falling tree brought down power lines across Glenwood just north of Carolina Country Club on Friday afternoon.

Glenwood Ave reopened around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday after crews worked through the night to restore power lines and clean debris. 

It wasn't high winds, heavy rain or damp ground that sent the massive tree toppling onto one of Raleigh's busiest roads. Arborist Dave Klemp says the culprit may be hiding in plain sight: Weeks of relentless heat and one of the worst droughts in years.

"You got a thirsty tree. Just like people who get dehydrated, it will stop itself from breathing if it's losing too much water," Klemp said.

Rondel Guffey, a certified arborist with TreeScape, told WCNC in Charlotte that drought and extreme heat cause trees and other plants to lose moisture, placing them under significant stress. He said drier-than-normal trees show symptoms that include reduced photosynthesis, early leaf drop, and branch dieback.      

Kemp pointed to the compounding dry conditions and compared the living tree to a human being.

"If you have heat, you're losing water," Klemp said. "Everytime you breathe or talk, you're losing water. They're doing the same thing."

At least three power poles were damaged, and Duke Energy estimated it could be 1 a.m. before all power is restored to the area just north of the Carolina Country Club.

Cindy Robertson Corry, who lives nearby, said she heard a loud boom that sounded like the explosion of a transformer before losing power indoors. 

"I looked out the window and saw all of the transformers are down, lines are down, trees are down," she told WRAL News.

"It's a miracle no one was under that tree," she added.

A GoRaleigh bus that tried to make a U-turn to avoid the closed lanes bottomed out along the shoulder of the road, but no one was hurt.