760 Tree Attacks

Monday, June 26, 2006

I heard a sound outside this afternoon, like someone was unloading boxes from a truck in the driveway, but I hadn't heard a truck come up the drive. I went outside to look for the source of the noise, and found a tree had fallen in the newly cleared woods.

A black locust had split diagonally about 15 feet up the trunk, and the top 50 feet of the tree had fallen. Luckily, it fell toward the property line, not across the driveway, but it took out the cord the kid had so painstakingly laid to mark the lot line.

I forgot to mention that a tree fell on the road as I was returning from a meeting in Highland last evening. I was entering the village (the speed limit had just dropped from 55 to 40mph, which was lucky), and suddenly, whoosh, a tree fell from the right verge, across the road very close in front of me. I whipped into the left lane and shoulder, so I bounced over some smaller branches from the top of the tree. The tires on the rental car felt wobbly for a few blocks, but then it straightened out, so no damage done. But it sure was scary. I don't know what would have happened if I'd hit the trunk, or if there had been a car coming from the other direction - or if it fell on me!

Hmmmmm. I never did look to see if there were any scratches on the side of the car. Ok, I just went out and looked. It's ok. I'd hate to have to explain to Enterprise.

Oh, and I haven't heard anything about the van yet. Not good.

We've had rain for most days of every week for a long time now. Heavy rain, not just showers. There's standing water everywhere, and frequent crawls across the bottom of the TV screen, warning of flooding. Except for a few thunderstorms, there hasn't been much wind, so I don't know why these trees are breaking partway up, as opposed to uprooting from the soggy ground. In both cases, there was only a little high wind. Gently waving treetops, not like in past storms, when I've seen these same trees bent almost parallel to the ground. (It takes a LOT to put a 90 degree bend in a black locust!)

I don't much care for rain anyway, but the weather lately feels almost ominous. The air is green.