Disease, not drought, likely factor in tree damage - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Thousands of Indianapolis homes and businesses are still without electricity. It's been almost two days, since a storm took down trees, power lines, and utility poles. What's taking so long? Can we blame the drought for all the toppled trees?

It could take repair crews yet another day to finish untangling power lines, and restore electricity to neighborhoods scattered across the city. After thirty-six hours in the dark, Carol and William Lego were out of patience.

"We can't go anywhere. We have no air conditioning. All the food in our fridge is going to spoil now," said William Lego.

The Sunday morning storm, though small, was intense, initially taking out power to 35,000 IPL customers.

"We had quite a few poles that poles that were broken. We had lots of tree damage. Lots of downed power lines," said Crystal Livers Powers, IPL.

Many of them were dragged down by falling trees and limbs. Should we blame the drought? Would most of these trees been okay if they had more water? Arborists we spoke with say probably not.

"I haven't found any research that says drought stress causes trees to be more susceptible to fall apart in wind storms," said Nate Faris, Faris Tree Consulting.

Faris, a registered arborist, says storm damaged trees have pre-existing disease or weaknesses.

Some large, old trees we looked at Monday were in trouble years before the drought. The light colored wood is alive and reasonably healthy. The rest is dark, dead and rotting. Next door was another tree, healthy on the outside, but rotted to the core.

"This recent wind storm was just enough to knock if over," said Faris.

It isn't always easy to see what's wrong with a seemingly healthy tree. Dead limbs, excessive amounts of sap, even mushrooms growing out of bark are just some of the symptoms of a tree that's a windstorm away from being a tragedy.

Purdue University - Although trees have deeper moisture-reaching roots than agricultural crops, they are not immune to this summer's persistent drought, a Purdue Extension urban forestry specialist says.

International Society of Arboriculture

American Society of Consulting Arborists