Huge oak tree crashes across Beaufort street. Here’s what came down along with it

A large oak tree came crashing down Monday in Beaufort, taking out power and utility poles while blocking traffic on a residential street in the city’s historic district.

The downed tree prompted a response from the Beaufort-Port Royal Fire Department, Beaufort Public Works and Dominion Energy on the federal Presidents’ Day holiday.

“The tree was huge,” said Wendy Moustakas, who lives in the area.

When it came down, the tree snapped three utility poles and also took out the power line, said Kathleen Williams, a spokesperson for the city. It fell across Wilmington Street between Washington and Greene streets.

Property damage was minimal, Moustakas said, although her neighbor’s fence was destroyed.

“Miraculously no one was hurt,” Moustakas said.

The Beaufort-Port Royal Fire Department notified the Beaufort Public Works Department about the tree at 1:45 p.m.

Advanced insect infestation and old age can cause trees to fall over. But it was not immediately clear what caused this tree to topple, Williams said. There was no severe weather at the time.

The tree, Williams said, was either a water or laurel oak.

Work on restoring the power and cleanup occurred from 2-11 p.m. Monday.

Paul Fischer, a spokesman for Dominion said 29 customers lost power, which was restored with repairs completed at about 11 p.m. The tree was reported down at about 1:30 p.m. Trees and limbs are the No. 1 cause of power outages, Fischer said.

In addition to the emergency response to the downed tree, Dominion tree crews are continuing ongoing tree trimming near power lines as part of regular maintenance.

On Tuesday, Dominion crews were scheduled to be working along Mystic Circle, Center Drive and Laurel Bay Road.