A couple weeks ago, Ontario had a burst of severe thunderstorms throughout the week. We missed them in our neck of the woods, but they weren’t so kind to those around us.
My in-laws, who live in Eastern Ontario, went out to run some errands and they came back to discover that one of the largest trees in their yard- approx. 180 years old– had completely fallen over….huge roots and all. It was my favourite tree on their lot! It grew right on the edge of the water so I guess that made it a bit more vulnerable and unstable.
Here are some crazy photos of the aftermath…
Ouch!
To give some perspective, check out this picture of my father-in-law Ken standing in front of it.
Despite the tree falling onto the house, amazingly, the tree didn’t break one window or damage the roof. Now that is lucky. I think they had a bit of damage to the eaves trough and parts of the deck.
You can see how close it got to the windows….yikes!
Thankfully they weren’t outside when it happened…or even in the house. I can only imagine what their poor cats were thinking.
On the deck:
Needless to say it took a whole crew to cut it all up and remove the tree.
Have you ever found yourself in the middle of storm debris or even a natural disaster?
Oh my gosh — I am just so glad that they are okay!!! That is so sad, what a beautiful tree it must have been! Wahhhh well when one tree falls in the forest, the whole forest hears it, right?
AHHH!1 thats so spooky! im glad they are okay!! oh dear! that tree is HUGE – poor thing!
Wow! Those storms were crazy but I didn’t realize that they were causing that much damage. I am glad the house was spared!
Oh wow… they were INCREDIBLY lucky!!! My husband and I were living in Houston during Hurricane Ike back in ’08, which deposited a huge pine tree on top of our newly bought house. Blood, sweat, tears, and thousands of dollars in home repairs later, it turned out he was transferred back to our beloved Boston – where hopefully we will never again live through a hurricane. We’re putting the Houston house up for sale this summer, and hopefully in a few months, we won’t have to think about it ever again!
Wow that is crazy!! Thank goodness everyone and most everything was OK. A few years ago we had a massive storm here, which is pretty strange, we live in a valley in BC so weather is usually very calm. The winds ripped off some roofs and ripped trees out of the ground. It was pretty scary to be out during it, but it actually wasn’t too bad though.
Oh wow! That was a close call! We had severe tornados here on April 27th (Alabama). The power was actually out for a week! I have family that lost their homes and a friend that lost loved ones as well. My heart still aches for them. There’s still damage everywhere you look, almost two months later! We were lucky though. Thank GOD!! I hope your in-laws are able to get it all cleaned up quickly :) It is sad to see trees that old go down :(
Shannon, we live in east Tennessee and I have to say, April 27th was a day & night like nothing I’ve ever seen… and I spent almost 20 years growing up in the edge of Tornado Alley in Indiana. They are saying it’s the worst tornado outbreak in 40 years or something like that. The damage in some areas of the South is just unbelievable. It will take a lot of clean up and a lot of time for folks to get back to normal. I’m glad you and your family are okay… sorry to hear about your friend’s family :-(
OSG – that is one heck of a tree – I’m glad they’re okay and their house isn’t damaged very much! Plenty of firewood for the winter, I suppose!
Woah! Thank god there was no damage or injuries! Their guardian angels were with them that day for sure! So glad that this was a happy ending!
Oh no! I would have been devastated! Those trees have really seen it all. We used to have a tree in our backyard that was just about the same size. When I was a kid I’d go outside once a day and give it a BIG hug. I’m not sure why I started doing it, but I’d tell my mom that a tree that old surely needed a good friend.
It’s good that no one in your family was injured! That must have been quite the storm!
Yikes! Glad everyone was ok!
Wow that is a HUGE tree, so old, so big, and glad they are ok and that no one was hurt..and no property damage! Their guardian angels were watching over them!
In Balboa Park here in San Diego there are 200+ year old trees and I live right across the street from the park and once or twice a year watch men go up in super!! tall “cherry picker” cranes and trim the trees and try to do what they can to “maintain” the trees so they dont topple over like that…but if Mother Nature wants to topple, she’s gonna go for it :)
Scary!
I was in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit. The property I was staying at had about 300 pine trees come down (it was 10 acres). Pine trees will just snap in hurricane winds. Amazingly, only one tree hit the house, and didn’t do much damage. After the storm we would literally get lost in the yard because it was unrecognizeable with all those downed trees. It took several days to get out because the driveway and road were blocked. And of course that whole time cell phones and electricity were out.
Wow, I would have never guessed that severe of weather occured in Ontario!
Glad you’re safe!
that is so scary! glad no one was hurt!!!
Amazing photos! We have large trees (more like 50 years old) all over our yard and that is one of my biggest fears!
Wow that IS crazy! Glad there was minimal damage and no one was hurt!
Wow! I’m glad their house wasn’t damaged–how lucky! When I was a kid (around 6 or so), my dad and I were standing at my bedroom window watching a bad storm when a HUGE section of tree came through the window. Somehow my dad pulled me back in time (he must have heard the crack of the tree or something and reacted without knowing what was happening because he can’t remember how he knew the tree was coming through the window) and neither of us were hurt, but it could have turned out very differently!
huge tree! I always get sad when I see big trees like that go down… I’m glad everyone was safe and the damage minimal.
we live out on a couple acres, and have some big (not that big!) trees in our yard. a couple years ago one fell on a power line, and several fires started. It was a scary ordeal that went on for hours, waiting for the power to be turned off before the fire dept. could stop the fires:
http://bit.ly/dgEsxS
exciting day, indeed!
Sadly yes. A couple of summers ago we had a big wind storm in Michigan. I was home alone because my kids were in school and the tops of two trees came down in my yard. Turned out it wasn’t that bad, but when I looked out my window all I saw were leaves and branches. So I dragged my dog into the bathroom and freaked out.
The only real damage done was a big dent in our grass from the tree. Thank goodness.
So glad that your in law’s were alright and that their house is still standing.
Such a shame to see a beautiful tree come down, but it’s all part of the life cycle. Very glad to see that no one got caught right in the middle of it! It would be wonderful to honor the tree by having it milled into furniture for the house or yard (perhaps a picnic table? adirondack chairs? dining table?).
That tree is enormous. I bet they were sad to see it go.
Hurricane Ike a few years ago did a lot of damage, knocked down 3 of our trees. No power for a week, but some of those around us were without power for 2 weeks. That wasn’t fun…