[at-l] Widow maker

[Charles Copeland" <charles@uswnet.com (Charles Copeland)]

The drought here in the South is going to create a great many widowmakers.
The root systems are being damaged and will have increasing difficulty
holding up the trees.  We went through a drought in 1989-1990 that hurt a
lot of trees.  We finally had a rainstorm blow through and an hour after it
was over - in dead calm - a tree fell over on Briarcliff Rd in Atlanta.
Unfortunately it fell on a friend of mine who had stopped at a stop sign.
He and his truck were crushed.  It was determined that the weight of the
rain on the leaves was too much for the tree to hold.

The poplar trees around here are already losing their leaves.  My back yard
looks like its October - not August.

Charles


----- Original Message -----
From: <RoksnRoots@aol.com>
To: <AT-L@backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 11:05 PM
Subject: [at-l] Widow maker


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--
From: RoksnRoots@aol.com
Full-name: RoksnRoots
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 23:04:58 EDT
Subject: Widow maker
To: landis@epix.net
X-Plaintext: Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
While going into Beechy Bottom in Harriman on an access trail I saw a large
dead tree fall in a strong wind a few yards from the AT. The noise is a
tremendous cracking of branches and wisping branch sound followed by a huge
BOOM! Your first thought is thank God I wasn't under that. The moral is it
is
more likely to happen on windy days or during saturating rains.

     If you were standing on the Beechy Bottom Brook Bridge during hurricane
Floyd you would have been crushed along with the bridge by an over 2 foot
diameter oak...


       Yes, when a tree falls in the woods it makes a sound.
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