Monday, October 10, 2011

The collapse of the cottonwood tree

Awhile back, I posted about the cottonwood trees around our lake. 

In that post I mentioned this: Cottonwoods can become rotten and it is unnoticeable -- until the tree falls.

Well... guess what?

A few weeks ago during some rather high winds, our neighbors who are just two doors down us experienced it first-hand. The tree came crashing down and destroyed their boat, the boat lift, their jet ski, the jet ski lift -- and the entire dock. Luckily, nobody was hurt!

The tree came down quickly, smashing through the dock and everything around it.

It also crushed a boat, a jet ski and both lifts!

This was the jet ski lift. You can see the crushed wheel which is used to raise and lower the jet ski.

What is left of the boat lift -- the cover stayed on. The home owners definitely kept their sense of humor -- do you see the chainsaw sitting on top of the tree trunk??

Base of the tree where it was rotten. This was a HUGE tree!

Better view of the ruins.

And another. The tiny chainsaw probably wouldn't cut a small branch on this tree!

The disaster from the other side.

This man, who insisted on climbing over everything to stand out there, is over 6' tall -- gives you a good idea how large this tree was! (There's one of these guys in every crowd, isn't there? LOL!)



Thanks for visiting!

6 comments:

Blondie's Journal said...

Oh...what a shame! I'm glad no one was hurt. Your pictures are incredible. We took two cottonwood trees down by our shore because of the mess they made. I don't miss them!

XO,
Jane

Pinky at Designs by Pinky said...

Oh, thank GOD no one was on the dock or boat when it came down!!!!!!!!! That IS a huge tree and will be a real mess to clean up. I hope their insurance will cover this! XO, Pinky

Dianne said...

So sad for them. I had a tree fall on my car in my driveway and you just feel so helpless. I looked up for about 6 months afterwards! Hope all is restored soon. Dianne

Out on the prairie said...

There are some big trees up there.I haven't looked to see what the largest is for the state but found one that was more than five arm lengths around just north of you.I used it for a model in a speciman drawing.

Anonymous said...

Oh what a mess! That's a whole lot of firewood, as my husband would say. We've lost a lot of trees due to wind this year, but all of them were on our other property and did no damage to anything...other than themselves.
As you said, it's a blessing no one got hurt. After all, the rest can be replaced by insurance.

Heather at Farm to Fork said...

I hate to see trees go down. I am so glad no one was hurt. Maybe they can get some bone fire wood or some mulch from the smaller branches.

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