WWWe went down to Alma to see if there was any post hurricane storm damage and to get some gas for the generator. The gas station was without power, too but has the pumps set up on a generator so people can get gas.
Everything looked surprisingly normal until we went up the mill road and we noticed a couple of very big trees down. After parking for our walk we went back to the first house and walked around back where the tree was down and some people were milling about. It was a giant Poplar about 125 feet tall and the main trunk more than 2 feet across. But it had 3 trunks so the overall size was bigger. The tree didn’t break - it was uprooted. I think the tree was on the lot behind this one. The heaving up of the ground by the roots put a garden shed on quite a slant. It fell diagonally across their back yard, across another garden shed but not resting on it, and missing their house entirely by just a few feet, but landing squarely on the roof of the next house which was just the width of the driveway away.
View attachment 149237
Part of the tree broke through the roof and the weight of the tree on the house caused the wall to bulge. The tree broke over the peak of the roof and fell down the other side as well. I’m not sure if the roof peak was broken but it looked like it. In the process it broke 2 power lines.
View attachment 149242
This is a view from the street. From this distance the tree doesn’t look like much at all. The size and weight of the tree will require a crane to lift it off the house to remove the tree to prevent further damage to the house. To add insult to injury, people don’t consider Poplar to be any good for firewood so no one even wants the wood once it’s cut up.
View attachment 149243
Just a couple of houses further along the street there was another giant Poplar tree uprooted. This time landing just behind a small gift shop. Although some of the tree branches are draped over the building the actual weight of the tree is on the ground behind the shop. They were lucky. Less lucky are the crows that used to roost in this tree.
Except for the power being off the rest of the village looked quite normal, or as normal as it gets.
The wind was coming from the land so there were no great on-shore waves or damage that I have heard about. Also, most of the wind happened during low tide when the waves would be quite far from shore (1km).
We took a drive out to Waterside beach and saw several trees laying on power lines along the way. The beach looked completely normal.
This is a reminder to make sure my tiny house is not near any big trees!!