A large oak fell tree on North Church Street early Tuesdaymorning, temporarily closing the street and knocking out power to ahandful of homes in the area.

Neighbors said the tree in front of a rental home at 223 NorthChurch St. fell around 5:45 a.m. Martha Cole, who lives nearby,said she thought a power transformer had blown.

“It made quite a noise,” Cole said.

Instead of a blown transformer, Cole went outside to find thetree across power and telephone lines and blocking the street.Tension on the downed power line also pulled Cole’s meter box offher home.

“It pulled everything off my house,” Cole said.

Cole said police closed the section of the street beforeelectric company and city street department employees arrived.

Entergy employees were working to restore electricity to sixhomes that lost power due to the downed tree. Senior lineman KennyBritt expected power restoration to be done quickly, althoughCole’s home would take a little longer because of the need toreplace the meter box.

Brookhaven Street Department superintendent Jimmy Griffin saidthe tree had virtually no root system, which contributed to itsfalling along with recent rain. Officials at the waste watertreatment plant reported over two inches of rain in the last 24hours.

Griffin said the tree was about four feet wide, but he did nothave an age estimate.

“I’ve been here a long time and it’s been here all that time,”Griffin said.

In other early Tuesday activity, several county Field Lark Lanereported some bridge-related flooding in their area.

Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department officials reportedresponding Tuesday to a tree down at 7:30 a.m. on Price Road and apower outage at 7:17 a.m. on Carmel-New Hope Road. Power wasrestored by 9 a.m.