First, stay clear of it

Winter storms and heavy limbs do this to west-county homes more often than anyone would like. The overhead service drop takes the weight, and the pipe on your roof or wall that holds it bends, pulls loose, or tears partly away.

Treat every wire involved as live. That includes lines on the ground, lines tangled in a tree, and any metal those lines are touching, like a gutter, a fence or a ladder. Keep people and animals away, and never try to pull a limb off a service drop.

Call the utility right away and report a damaged or downed line. If you see sparking, fire, or wires down where people walk, call 911 too. Then shut off the main breaker at your panel, but only if you can reach it without going anywhere near the damage.

Once the utility has made the lines safe, call us. That is the moment the homeowner’s side of the repair begins, and the sooner it starts, the sooner the house is back on.

Where the utility’s side stops and yours begins

The dividing line surprises people. The utility owns and maintains the wires from the pole to the point where they connect at your house, usually a splice just below the weatherhead. From there inward, most of the equipment belongs to the homeowner.

That generally includes the service mast, the rigid pipe rising above the roofline to hold the drop at a safe height, and the weatherhead at its top that keeps rain out of the conductors. It includes the service entrance conductors running down inside the mast, the meter socket the meter plugs into, and everything from there to the panel. The meter itself belongs to the utility.

So after a storm, the utility can cut the drop free and make things safe, but its crews will not straighten a bent mast or replace a cracked meter socket. Those repairs fall to a licensed electrician. On a rural parcel with the meter on a pole or post, the layout and the ownership line look a little different, and we sort that out when we see it.

Damage a pulled mast hides

A mast that looks only slightly bent can hide real damage, because the force of that pull had to go somewhere. Common results include a cracked or loose roof support, a mast torn from its wall straps, a meter socket twisted on the siding, and conductors stretched or nicked inside the pipe.

Roof penetrations get torn as well. Where the mast passes through the roof, the flashing or boot can split, and the next winter rain runs straight into the attic along the pipe.

Inside the meter socket, the jaws that grip the meter can loosen or crack. A loose connection there makes heat under load, and heat in a meter socket is a fire risk you cannot see from the yard.

The weatherhead may also be broken or twisted so it no longer sheds water. Rain then runs down inside the mast onto the meter socket and toward the panel, and water in a meter socket corrodes the jaws and conductor terminations over time.

Grounding is the last piece people forget. The grounding conductor often runs down the wall near the meter to a rod or a water pipe, and a violent pull on the service can loosen its clamp or snap it outright. A service that comes back on without a solid ground still works, and it gives no sign that anything is missing until the day a fault needs somewhere safe to go.

Why repair and re-inspection come before power

After the utility disconnects a damaged service, it typically will not restore power until the homeowner’s equipment is repaired and, in most cases, signed off by the building department. That gate protects everyone, including the line crew who makes the reconnection.

The repair depends on what the storm did. Sometimes the mast can be re-secured with new straps and a new roof support. Often a bent mast is replaced outright, since bent pipe has lost strength and straightening it is not a sound fix. Damaged conductors get replaced, and a cracked or twisted meter socket comes out.

Where the existing equipment is old, a storm repair is a natural moment to consider a panel and service upgrade, especially with a heat pump, an EV charger or a battery on the list. Nobody should feel pushed into that on a bad day. We lay out both paths and you decide.

We pull the permit, make the repair, arrange the inspection, and coordinate with the utility so reconnection happens as soon as the process allows.

The inspection itself looks at what the storm stressed. The inspector checks that the mast is supported and braced properly, that the weatherhead sits where it should, that the drop will clear the roof by a safe margin, that the meter socket is sound and secured, and that the grounding is intact. None of that is visible to the utility crew from the ground, which is exactly why the sign-off comes first.

Trees, clearance, and the next storm

A drop that has come down once can come down again if the tree that caused it keeps growing toward the line. Trimming near the utility’s wires is work for the utility or a qualified line-clearance crew, never for a homeowner with a pole saw.

On your side, look at mast height and support. Older installs sometimes have short masts, or masts that lean on the roof alone for support. A proper replacement holds the drop at the right height over the roof and adds the bracing the load needs.

If the house has older wiring behind that service, an electrical safety inspection can confirm nothing downstream took a hit when the lines were yanked.

Photos and paperwork for the insurance claim

Storm damage from a falling limb often turns into a homeowner’s insurance claim, and the record starts with you. Before anything is cut or moved, take photos from a safe distance: the mast and weatherhead, the meter and socket, the roof where the mast comes through, the limb itself, and any lines still attached. Wide shots show the scene, closer ones show the bend. Write down when the damage happened and when the utility cut the service.

Keep adding to the file as the repair goes. Photos of the attic under the roof penetration matter if water got in. Hold on to any reference number the utility gives you, plus receipts for tree removal. Whether the policy covers the mast is between you and your insurer, but our written findings, the permit and the final inspection give an adjuster a clear account of what failed and what was replaced.

The person who answers (707) 684-0024 is the one who comes out to look at the service, and the contact page works if a message is easier. Past service repairs are in the gallery, and the Sebastopol page covers our other work in town. You will know what it’ll cost to put things right after that first look.