Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosNeighbors stand with Carol Kelley in her driveway Friday morning looking over the damage done when a large ponderosa pine fell Thursday evening in their Gilchrist yard. The tree destroyed the couple’s fifth-wheel trailer, pickup truck and PT Cruiser, caved in their garage and crushed a neighbor’s car.
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Tree falls in Gilchrist, and disbelief follows
Couple unsure why tree fell, but the damage is extensive
By Kelly McLain and Erin Golden / The Bulletin
Published: August 02. 2008 4:00AM PSTAt 8:30 Thursday evening, Doug and Carol Kelley were watching television at their Gilchrist home when Carol thought she heard thunder.
Carol, 59, said she didn’t believe it was thunder because the sky was clear that night. But Doug, 58, said he saw something fall outside their living room window.
Then the couple’s two-story house shook. Doug said he and his wife ran outside to find the large ponderosa pine in their front lawn had fallen over on top of three vehicles in their driveway, their garage and a neighbor’s car. The tree’s tangled roots were still attached.
The tree, which Carol said is about 100 to 150 feet tall and about 4 feet across at the bottom, uprooted from the ground and crushed the couple’s 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser, sliced through their 2008 Cedar Creek fifth-wheel trailer and damaged the hood of their 2007 Chevrolet Duramax truck.
“It was a total shock,” Doug said. “It’s not like we were having a horrendous windstorm or anything, It was a beautiful evening. There wasn’t even a breeze blowing.”
No one was injured in the crash, but Carol said she estimates between $125,000 and $200,000 in damages to their garage and vehicles.
She said the tree flattened the tires of the PT Cruiser and crushed the car’s grill into the driveway. The impact caused the front end of the fifth-wheel trailer to crash into the truck. She said the tree hit the fifth-wheel trailer so hard it was pushed into the garage door, also causing the front of the garage to cave to the garage floor.
Carol said the tree damaged about $5,000 worth of Christmas decorations stored in their garage, including a 10-foot sleigh with reindeer. The tree also hit their neighbor’s 2005 Hyundai Sonata, flattening the tires and hood.
The Kelleys’ neighbor, Darin Bean, is an Oregon State Police trooper. He said he was just minutes from coming home from work when the tree fell. The impact caused his kitchen door to blow open while the tree’s limbs, needles and pine cones covered his kitchen floor. He said the tree also hit the side of his house, estimating an excess of $10,000 in damages to his property and his vehicle.
“Wow. That’s about all you can say,” said Bean, 40.
What to watch for
Large trees like the one that fell in the Kelleys’ yard rarely topple over, said Jim Weaver, a certified arborist who owns Alta Tree Service in Bend.
Weaver said towering pines and other trees sometimes fall over in heavy wind or after a heavy rainfall softens the ground. In other cases, trees can be at risk if their root systems are too small to support them.
“The general reason trees come down is, number one — though it isn’t common around here — that the soil gets too much moisture and the root system isn’t big enough,” he said. “What makes a tree strong is when the wind is blowing on it, it’s flexing. And as it flexes it develops more fiber to handle that wind — as it feels more pulling it will develop more roots to compensate for that.”
Though most trees can stand up to a variety of elements, Weaver said people can look out for a few signs that could mean their trees are weak. In coniferous trees, like pines, he said a split at the top or two trunks growing together at the bottom can sometimes make a tree more likely to fall over in a heavy wind.
Weaver said tree owners also should watch out for signs of tree rot, like substantial mushroom growth around a tree’s roots. And trees that seem to be leaning too far over also can be more likely to split or fall, though he said a leaning tree doesn’t necessarily need to be removed.
“The thing people should realize is that whenever you live around big trees, anything can happen,” Weaver said. “It’s not that they’re all dangerous, but you never know — with the right wind, the greatest tree in the world could snap.”
Now what?
The tree lay in the Kelleys’ yard Friday morning as the couple has to wait for claim adjusters to start adding up the damage. The other ponderosa pine in their front yard will be cut down in the near future, Doug said.
“It just blows my mind,” Doug said. “I can’t believe it happened. If I didn’t walk outside and look, I still wouldn’t believe it.”
Erin Golden can be reached at 541-408-2836 or at egolden@bendbulletin.com.
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