Yesterday, November 20th, we got to experience what happens when one of these big trees falls. I don’t know if all trees give some warning, but in the morning, I did hear some “cracking,” although I didn’t think much of it. When the tree decided to give way, I was inside the trailer straightening things up when the “cracking” was just not a little “crack.” The sound was loud and startling as if it was right outside the trailer. I quickly exited the trailer in time to see that the tree wasn’t going to land on me and was also stopped in my tracks, watching this massive object come crashing down. The sound that the tree made was impressively loud, much like thunder but on ground level. Once it did land, I was quite terrified and prayed that no one was driving on the road where this tree landed. Trees this big have no sympathy and destroy everything they come in contact with. After it did land, we did run up to check the damage and that no one was hurt, which it was nice to see that there were no vehicles under all the debris. What surprised me most was when everyone came upon the road, walking around with little concern for all the wires down. Most of the wires were cable or telephone, but I also knew that most people did not know this. Luckily the fire department showed up shortly after to close down the road and clear everyone away. Within a couple of hours, they had heavy equipment pushing the tree over the bank, tying up loose wires, and had the road reopened for folks to go about their way. The tree falling around 2 pm also made things difficult for the crew working in the office because without power, checking folks in became difficult with no computer. Luckily I had my generator in the trailer that I could use to get them back up and running.
This morning, November 21st, they started early on repairing wires which will probably take them all day, but I can say this is one experience that will be remembered for a lifetime…
Update… They got our power back on around noon which was surprisingly fast although they have a bunch more work yet to do…