Tree came down on house

algale · Post by **algale** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 12:16 am

Thankfully nobody was hurt but we had a massive windstorm bring down an enormous oak on the house. Thankfully only the last 20 feet or so got us Smashed the rear porch that runs the length of the house and destroyed the supporting beam and a column. Lost some eaves on the second story too. Won't be able to assess fully until daylight.

tgamel · Post by **tgamel** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 3:51 am

algale wrote:Thankfully nobody was hurt but we had a massive windstorm bring down an enormous oak on the house. Thankfully only the last 20 feet or so got us Smashed the rear porch that runs the length of the house and destroyed the supporting beam and a column. Lost some eaves on the second story too. Won't be able to assess fully until daylight.

Glad no one was hurt, homes you can rebuild, people, not so easily.....

cincinnati · Post by **cincinnati** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 6:59 am

My electric just came on after 12 hrs.
News radio said Dayton Ohio was hit hard and Ft. Wayne Ind. as well.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:09 am

Sorry to hear about this, Al. Just very thankful that no one was hurt.

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:33 am

Bummer on the tree... I have a few I am planning to get "reduced" this fall. I hate to do it in the middle of this serious drought we are in. Much of northern Indiana had rain yesterday and again last night. As usual it mostly stayed north of us. We did get a quick shower yesterday but not enough to float the ring in the ring gauge. Still, every little bit helps and we are grateful for it.
My main concern about our few hours of power outage was the loss of the AC and not being able to run fans in the triple digits. Turned out it was not a problem because the winds persisted and the temperature dropped like a rock. If it had become oppressive I do have a power inverter that will run a number of fans (and the laptop

). We could have also migrated to the basement which is always cool.

.

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:18 am

Al, sorry to hear of your misfortune. Hopefully everything works out and the repairs are done quickly.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 11:21 am

Sounds like everyone is getting it between heat, fires, storms and all.

We just went through Debby and lot of trees are down. I had an arborist look at my oak trees and he gave me a choice. Leave them alone or cut them down. He said to trim them often removes the cushion they have when they come down.

His thinking was for my trees the lower limbs would hit the ground and cushion the rest of the tree should it fall towary my house. If they cut those lower limbs then the tree would fall full force onto the house.

He said the only tree he would recommend cutting is the tree that is positioned so the first thing it would hit was my house. In that case he would cut it down.

Have some really tall 50ft plus sugar pines that will be removed. Their trunk at the base is over 2 ft in diameter. He said they probably would not fall as such but that the tree would snap off about 20ft up and the rest would come hurling down.

I'm now looking for the right guy to cut the trees. Too bad pine isn't a more desireable tree lumber wise. Way too close the house for me to consider cutting them. An "Oops" with a tree this big turn into an "aw crap" real quick.

judaspre1982 · Post by **judaspre1982** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 11:45 am

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algale · Post by **algale** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 12:49 pm

The water luckily did not come in the main house but the porch ceiling does have water damage and the porch roof if smashed along with eaves of the second story. Insurance has a tree co with a crane on its way. More storms tonight. I'll post a picture when I am able. Luckily the main trunk of the tree came right down on top of a column which took the brunt of the damage along with the beam it supports at the front edge of the porch roof. If not for that it probably would have cut the house in half right where we were all sitting. The wind came up literally out of nowhere. One minute dead quiet and the next it was roaring like a freight train. Even before I could register what was happening and get us to the basement the tree hit us.

algale · Post by **algale** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 1:07 pm

Posted a video on you tube and here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BGpjbtqNNE