Huge tree fallen on garage

[Mike Buckley]

It was 1:15am. I was in bed though not asleep when I heard a quick series of loud crashes. I knew instantly that a neighbor's tree or a large limb from it had fallen and that the series of crashes was the tree falling through large limbs of other trees.

I quickly put on my clothes and drove my car to the site even though it was only on the other side of the block. My concern was that somebody might have been hurt and that I might need to rush them to the nearby hospital emergency room. Fortunately, the house had just been sold and nobody was living in it.

The fallen tree is at least 100 feet (30 meters) tall and at least 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter near its base. The entire tree fell over. The top landed on a freestanding one-car garage and completely destroyed at least the roof and front side. No car was in the garage.


Rear of the garage
The base of the tree is far to the left in the neighbor's yard. Though this looks like two trees, it is two sections of the same tree that had forked near the base.



Side of the garage
The part that used to be the top of the tree is where the roof used to be. The roof and system of trusses is now collapsed onto the floor of the garage.



Front of the garage
The white material is what used to be the garage door that lifted upward to allow entrance into the garage.

[Otavio]

Gosh... quite a damage! Glad to hear nobody was there. Nice series, Mike. Regards,

[terrib]

Wow, what a mess. Glad it was an empty garage and not someone's house with them asleep inside!

[ST1]

Nice set and narrative Mike, I'm glad that there were no causalities. I wonder what happens now, I imagine that the new owners will have some major issues sorting out the repairs.

[wtlwdwgn]

This post is worthy of a newspaper article! Well done. From your images it looks like the garage walls survived and just needs a new roof.

[Shadowman]

Lot of destruction, nicely captured.

[NorthernFocus]

Ouchies. Lucky it fell on an unoccupied structure. Too much excitement to wake up to.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

My wife and I were discussing over dinner last night whether the buyer of the house would have a sound legal basis for not going through with the deal. If I were the buyer, I would feel like I would be getting a new garage once it's built, so I would go ahead and purchase the property. On the other hand, recognizing that there are so many trees of the size that fell, the buyer might be in fear that others could fall as well.

[Colin Southern]

My wife and I were discussing over dinner last night whether the buyer of the house would have a sound legal basis for not going through with the deal.

I imagine that legally it'll be pretty cut and dried one way or the other - probably with insurance companies getting involved.

Reminds me of a similar thing we had happen in our neck of the woods only a few months ago ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvHv3w6cgJE

[Loose Canon]

If the base of the tree is in the neighb's yard then it will be most likely their responsibility for damages.

At least that is the case in my neck of the woods.

[Mike Buckley]

The tree fell Saturday night. Monday afternoon a crew of about five or six men armed with the proper tools and skills removed the tree and cut the base down to the ground in just a couple of hours.

The garage was probably built about 1950. It's interesting to see that none of the brick and block walls seem to have been damaged. Despite the tons of weight that fell on the garage, those walls didn't shake enough to even crack just one pane of glass in the windows. If you view the image at the largest size you can see that the roof was made of tongue-and-groove wood. They sure don't build roofs with that any more and I'm sure the new replacement roof will be made of plywood sheets.


View of the front of the garage with the fallen tree removed

[Mike Buckley]

All of the refuse has been removed and the garage seems ready to have its roof and front door replaced.