No small miracle: 100-foot-tree falls, hits no one
Published: July 13, 2006
A huge oak tree broke from its roots Wednesday night and, somehow, laid itself down in the only spot it could without hitting a house.
Sherrie Sykes was in her living room reading a book at 6 p.m. when her dogs told her something was about to happen. “They all growled at once,” Sykes said. “I looked out the window and the tree was falling over. It was like slow motion.”
The 100-foot tree had been a provider of shade on Broadway Avenue for as long as neighbors can remember. About 0.01 inches of rain fell Wednesday, but nothing that amounted to a storm passed through the area, according to the National Weather Service. The trunk of the tree was apparently rotten and dying on the inside.
The tree fell without hitting Sykes’ home or three others nearby. It didn’t knock out the power, cable or phone lines, even though it did land on the wires. It did take out a pickup truck in a neighbor’s driveway. And the whole ordeal left quite an impression on Sykes.
“I freaked out,” Sykes said. “I called Bunny.”
Bunny Long, the neighbor on the side not affected by the falling tree, said she knew something was up when she heard the thick wood of the oak start to splinter as the tree fell. “It sounded like a crack of thunder,” she said.
The neighbors, all of whom have fireplaces, plan to divvy up the oak’s wood when a tree surgeon comes to clean up the mess.
Still, there will be a big empty space where the oak once stood. And there will be a lot less shade.
“I love big trees,” Sykes said. “I hate to see it gone.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: