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 goodness, that tree is enormous!! I’m glad no one got hurt. Thankfully, I’ve never been in the middle of a serious storm, but I know a few people who have (like the tsunami that happened in Thailand about 6 years ago i think it was…) and hearing the stories is quite enough for me!
I lived in Japan for two years and experienced a multitude of earthquakes and typhoons… and went to Thailand about two weeks after the tsunami hit in 2006. Scary, scary stuff.
The weather in Central Texas has been hot, dry, dry, dry and windy. A tree fell over in the parking lot at daughter Rita’s apartment taking out the electric, ripping the wiring off the side of the building, and damaging four cars – one was hers. She spent the weekend over here. She had to return for class on Monday so she left Sunday night. Mom was soo happy when she called and said all wiring was repaired and electric restored. Thank goodness the car was still drivable and will be fully repaired before long.
Woah, glad the tree didn’t break any of the house! It’s massive!
I live in TX, but in a city that really doesn’t have all that many tornadoes, or any at all. Just a lot of tornado warnings (now). Once an actual tornado blew through in the middle of the night without any sirens or warning alarms and it knocked over our fence in the backyard and continued on it’s path knocking over chimneys and blowing out roofs. The next morning we could literally see it’s path of destruction. Luckily no one was hurt, but needless to say, our tornado sirens now go off every time there’s even a slight chance of a tornado or heavy winds.
Holy Buckets! That’s some crazy, scary stuff. It had to have been hit by lightening – I don’t think mere wind could’ve taken down a tree like that!
That is a huge tree! So lucky that it didn’t come down on their roof top! We had a very old, large oak tree that cracked in half during a crazy storm. The surviving half is still in tact, somehow:) Great pics, glad your in-laws are okay:)
FIRES! I evacuated from THREE in the last five years living in Santa Barbara, CA. Not my favorite moments. But it makes you realize what you need and what counts most in life!
Wow! So glad everyone is okay and there was no major damage!
Yikes! That’s so lucky that no one was hurt and that there wasn’t much damage!
I definitely have my own thunderstorm story to share – when I was 14 I was out in a thunderstorm and a tree got hit by lightening and fell on ME! Thankfully I made it out with just a small concussion and 16 stitches to the head.
woah, what a crazy big, beautiful tree!
I’ve never been in a natural disaster of any sort, thank goodness.
OH MAN! Poor tree. I’m glad it didn’t hurt anyone or crash through your house!
Goodness! They are luck there was so little damage. When I was a kid at summer camp there were 3 cabins grouped in a semi-circle about 100 ft. from a wood. One night there was a severe storm which knocked down a tree missing the cabins by inches. You can imagine the scare factor for young girls, ages 7 – 14, with the thunder and the huge crack of lightening as it smote the tree and the creaking as it started to fall, followed by the crash of it’s branches. Come to think of it that would probably scare anyone.
Hi Angela,
I’ve been reading your blog for ages, and I’m working my way through your archives right now, but this is the first time I’ve commented. I love Oh She Glows!
On a more relevant note, I live in southern Ontario too and I’m amazed by some of the crazy weather we’ve had this year. Like hail yesterday – in June! What’s happening??
Thanks Susannah! And yes I agree we’ve had some weird weather thi Spring…good thing they are calling for a hot summer though! :)
Where in Eastern Ontario are your in-laws?
We’ve been haven really bad thunderstorms in Southern Ontario this past month! thankfully not to much damage! Glad there wasnt to much damage :)
Wow, that’s crazy! Glad no one was hurt. We have had quite a few tornados in my part of the country. It’s crazy to see damage like this! I enjoy following your blog! My friend, Becky, and I are hooked on Overnight Oat Parfaits! I have them almost every day!
You can check Becky and my blog at . I just posted a vegan cannoli recipe that is delicious :)
Keep up the great work and recipes!
~Elesha
I’m very happy to hear that nobody was hurt by the tree falling!
I live in a relatively disaster-free area, the Okanagan Valley, BC, but I’ve experienced a couple things. Once I was left to watch the pets while my family went out for awhile. I knew it was windy, but didn’t think much of it, until I went to let the dogs out to pee just in time to watch a large (50 year) pine tree fall through the fence about 15 feet from the deck where I was standing, neither dog had made it down the stairs yet and had the sense to come back inside when I called. We cuddled in the basement for the next few hours until family got home, I was about 12 at the time.
Also, same house, you may have heard of ‘Firestorm 2003.’ If you walked outside then, you were breathing ash, and the temperature was extraordinarily high. We were evacuated for over a week then, very scary. Lots of people lost their homes, thankfully I was lucky and didn’t. You could walk to the burn line from that house. I’m very fortunate on both accounts there.
That is so scary! Lucky all of the trees around my house are too far away to hit it. A few years ago we had a horrible ice storm and I can clearly remember waking up to the sound of trees cracking. Every few minutes you could hear branches breaking and occasionally an entire tree fall. Super scary. It also sucked that we had no power for 4 days! Thank goodness your family is okay and only minor damages were done :)
Wow, it’s sad to lose a tree with that much history. But I’m glad everyone was okay. Hurricane Ike did some damage to our roof but other than that, we’ve been lucky.
I live in the country, and we’ve had huge, old trees fall just like that! It’s sad and scary all at the same time. Perhaps you’ve seen it on the news, but at the moment, where I live, the Missouri River is flooding like crazy, and some towns are being forced to evacuate. Fortunately, my house is far enough away from the problem, but one small town only 10 minutes from where I live has been sandbagging for a few weeks now, and they still may have to evacuate since the River is just getting worse, not subsiding.