MOHALI: The Saturday night thunderstorm uprooted more than 100 trees and 30-40 electricity poles in Phase VI , leaving residents powerless for around 24 hours from 6pm on Saturday.Fifty employees of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and 20 of the MC along with two JCB machines worked overnight to remove the trees and repair the damaged overhead power cables. The electricity was restored by Sunday evening, said PSPCL executive engineer G S Oberai.Area councillor R P Sharma said, “Over 100 trees fell , damaging 30-40 electricity poles. Power also got snapped at civil hospital as well as at a private hospital in Phase VI.” “An autorickshaw driver had a narrow escape when his vehicle got crushed under a transformer pole after a tree fell on overhead cables. He had just walked away from his vehicle a few minutes earlier,” said Sharma.Area councillor R P Sharma said, "Sixteen electivity poles fell in two lanes from house number 1 to 20 and around 20 got bent. The boundary wall of a government school also got damaged after a eucalyptus trees fell on it.”Three cars parked outside houses were also damaged.Oberai said, “Three transformers had been damaged. Our three teams comprising 50 men carried out the repairs.”Power to civil hospital could only be managed by alternate arrangements of providing generator sets. Deputy commissioner Gupreet Kaur Sapra said, “We have taken stock of the situation. Alternate arrangements of power were made for civil hospital.”The need for a tree pruning machine was gravely felt on Saturday and Sunday. Residents and councillors wished that if the trees would have been pruned earlier, the damage could have been lesser.Sharma said, “The 100 trees that fell were overgrown and if the pruning machine had been operating, the damage could have been averted.”

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