Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Shaking up the afternoon

Rain was pouring down outside and Sofia and I were playing inside. Ray was getting ready to leave and looking out the window at the rain. Suddenly he jumped backward and shouted "Holy Sh*t!"  A huge section of a tree had come crashing down before his eyes, into our front yard.

Here is what the view from our front door looked like a couple weeks ago.


This is what it looks like today.

We have a big old dead tree on the other side of the creek. It is the one to the right of the big tree in the middle of the picture. Several months ago when we had several trees removed and others cleaned up, we had them look at the dead tree. Because of its size they suggested that they remove a lot of the dead limbs, but leave the tree. I was a little surprised that they left one very large limb that poked out at an odd angle. The explanation was that it was stable and would have been very dangerous to try to remove. Well, most of that limb came down today and as it fell it whacked a smaller tree, breaking off the entire top, which then came crashing across the creek. The big old dead limb landed, crossing the creek and narrowly missing the bridge. Here's a more graphic explanation. Click to enlarge.

Under the fallen tree top is my mosaic patio, which appears to be undamaged. You can see a bit of it through the branches here.


Here's the culprit—the dead branch laying across the creek. See how close it came to taking out the bridge?!
It's kind of a mess out there, but all things considered, not much damage.

7 comments:

  1. WHOA!! I knew we were having wind and rain.....but geez...sure glad it didn't hit the house or the any of you. Maybe problem solved, to bad you may have lost the other tree, lots more light in the yard!!

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  2. I was just at Multnomah Village and Taylor's Ferry Road looked like it had been hit with a microburst. We didn't have anything like that here.

    I'm glad nothing hit the abode.

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  3. Stable and too dangerous to remove, eh? So much for expert opinion. Glad things aren't any worse. The wind is blowing here, but not like that. It was good Ray hadn't stepped out the door and into the path yet.

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  4. Anonymous7:12 PM

    Thank God you weren't outside when it happened. You might want to call the tree guys to come see what the dead tree branch did. They might volunteer to come clean up the mess. Sounds better than a lawsuit :-)
    Beth

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  5. Phew! I would be a little upset with the tree trimmers for leaving it. It may have been dangerous to remove (although they are professionals) but more dangerous if someone had been outside when it fell.

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  6. These darned windstorms that we have make the PNW an ever-changing place! I have a neighbor who is so freaked out by the possibilities that they no longer have trees in their yard and she is constantly on me to mow mine down as well. I feel you just have to watch, trim, and hope for the best. So glad your flying branch didn't take out anything vital.

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  7. Ho-LEE! I’m just now reading this. So glad the damage wasn’t worse.
    We’ve had our share of downed limbs since we moved here, and it always amazes me that a huge tree, which seems like such a solid and immoveable object, can suddenly just break like that.

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