Originally Posted by
silmarillion
Yeah you know I usually watch the weather channel, and they were saying it was going to be bad windy today. Looking outside, I see it's just a little windy, but sunny and warmer that I thought as well. We had a big tree down in the neighborhood. There was a crew there to cut it up as I was leaving this morning.
It's for sure not something to take lightly! I was almost nailed by a falling tree in a storm last year, literally testing my brake's limits to stop just a few feet away. Then a couple of weeks ago I got to see first hand the kind of damage it could have been. Riding through a dirt lot to the local greenway trailhead I heard a loud explosion, which I thought at first was a back-fire, and at the same time a huge cloud of dust billowing up and out. Rotted 18-inch thick pieces of tree rolling to a stop. As the dust cleared I finally saw that an SUV had been smashed by a falling tree - hood, windshield, the entire top caved in. Windows splintered. In a parking lot! So I completely concur with the wisdom of taking no chances when trees are falling.