Some metro Atlanta homeowners elect to remove trees before Hurricane Ian

Strong wind gusts from Ian are toppling trees in metro Atlanta.

Some homeowners are taking dying trees down in advance to prevent them from falling.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Channel 2′s Tom Regan was in northeast Atlanta, where a tree crushed a wall near a home.

The huge oak was brought down Thursday morning by high wind gusts. The tree fell on and crushed the wall, but thankfully didn’t hit a nearby home.

In the meantime in Cobb County, a homeowner made the decision to take trees down before they could take out his home.

TRENDING STORIES:

• Teen charged with murder after 18-year-old girl dies of fentanyl overdose

• Photos: Floridians begin assessing catastrophic Hurricane Ian damage

• Atlanta Medical Center ER will close in 2 weeks, Wellstar announces

Allan Bell had several towering Poplar trees posing a threat to his home in Kennesaw removed.

“They’ve been losing branches over time, and they seem kind of past their prime,” Bell said. “All four were in striking distance of my house, and three were right next to my house, so I was worried about that.”

Fearing Hurricane Ian could track. into Georgia, he hired a local crew to take the trees down.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Bob Combs, a tree removal expert, said that winds of 30 to 35 mph will bring down lots of branches and some trees.

“Trees are heavy now,” Combs said. “They have their nuts on them.”

Bell said it’s better to take preventive action to avoid a lot of home repair headaches.

“I feel very lucky we were able to schedule the trees to come down before the storm,” Bell said.

According to the Georgia Power outage map, there are several hundred customers in the metro Atlanta area without power.