2018 Windfalls and Blowdowns

[Multifaceted]

Anyone living in the Mid-Atlantic region of the continental United States right now s aware of the winds we're experiencing. Some are saying it hasn't been this bad since Superstorm Sandy, others since the Derecho of 2012 (same year as Sandy). Post some pics of your storm cleanup.

With the recent brief ice storm we had a week or so ago, I have had at least three trees come down near my house (but none on my property); however I woke up this morning to find this in my front yard:

It was too dark when I left to see aything, but my wife snapped these pics before she left . This is when I got home for a closer look just as dusk was settling in...

I always thought it was a red oak species due to its size, but after looking at the inner wood grain and smelling it, it's clearly black cherry. It was a heavy leaner, and had a young shagbark growing beside it almost "propping" it up. Wasn't enough, though, a strong gust came and made short work of it. I wanted to take it down anyway, but it's heavy lean just was too risky for my limited knowledge. Mother nature took care of that, though... now I'm just trying to formulate a safe plan to clean this up...

 

[Marley5]

Yep, we're getting it pretty good here, mountains in VA.

Derecho of 2012 is without doubt the strongest windstorm I've witnessed here.
It actually snapped several large oaks in my yard, one landing on our travel trailer.

This current storm has been long lasting for sure but having no foliage on the trees minimizes damage, where as Derecho was in June.
Stay safe.

 

[farmer steve]

saw lots of trees down on my way to york yesterday afternoon. one big pine laying on a house.got a call from a customer last evening who has trees down and free wood for me. for now all i got is silver maple kindling in my yard.

 

[James Miller]

We got it pretty good here yesterday to. I think a lot of trees were saved by the fact there wasn't rain with all the wind. Steve if you read this I lost your number text me.

 

[rarefish383]

I thought about grabbing a pic of my farmer friends tree across her drive, then I saw the bare copper power line under the tree, and my only thought was getting out of the area ASAP.

 

[Jere39]

Just walking around the woods behind my house with my appropriately named Brittany, Scout and we found two big oaks that came down over night. We did have about 1½" of rain before the wind blew in colder temps and it switched over to "wintery mix". Here are two pics of these two nice 80-100 year old Red Oaks. Scout measures them up for me:







But, this is nothing compared to the October 29, 2011 snow storm that caught all the trees still fully leaved and was dubbed SnowTober around here. My property was devastated. The woods were unsafe to walk in for about a week. All day and night for 2 days the breaking and crashing trees sounded like artillery fire. It took me a couple weeks to just clean up all the trees on my lawn. There are still downed trees in the woods that haven't been addressed, and plenty of hanging widow-makers that I have to be vigilant of when working there.

Here is the thread I used to document it at that time: SnowTober Clean-up

 

[Husky Man]

Just walking around the woods behind my house with my appropriately named Brittany, Scout and we found two big oaks that came down over night. We did have about 1½" of rain before the wind blew in colder temps and it switched over to "wintery mix". Here are two pics of these two nice 80-100 year old Red Oaks. Scout measures them up for me:

View attachment 636904

View attachment 636905



But, this is nothing compared to the October 29, 2011 snow storm that caught all the trees still fully leaved and was dubbed SnowTober around here. My property was devastated. The woods were unsafe to walk in for about a week. All day and night for 2 days the breaking and crashing trees sounded like artillery fire. It took me a couple weeks to just clean up all the trees on my lawn. There are still downed trees in the woods that haven't been addressed, and plenty of hanging widow-makers that I have to be vigilant of when working there.

Here is the thread I used to document it at that time: SnowTober Clean-up

I'm Jealous, I don't have room for anything like that to fall on my place, but I sure would Love to see some blow down like that where we cut wood. We don't see any Oak, or much Maple on Mt. Hood where we wood cut, probably an elevation thing, some cutting around 3,000'+ but mostly 4,500' to over 6,000' elevation, mostly Conifers, Douglas Fir, with some Ponderosa and Lodge Pole Pines, around the Eastern side of the Hill. But for $10/cord for the permits from the Forest Circus, We will take the 5 cords we are allowed, and scrounge the rest.

Doug

 

[Multifaceted]

Yep, we're getting it pretty good here, mountains in VA.

Derecho of 2012 is without doubt the strongest windstorm I've witnessed here.
It actually snapped several large oaks in my yard, one landing on our travel trailer.

This current storm has been long lasting for sure but having no foliage on the trees minimizes damage, where as Derecho was in June.
Stay safe.

I was still an apartment dweller during that Derecho of 2012, but I was house/dog sitting for a friend and had to clean up debris and patio furniture the following day. I agree, had this wind been blowing like this with leaves on the trees we'd probably be looking at a catastrophe. Still a little too windy today to start the cleanup, already seen a few large branches fall while trying to pick up the ones that are already on the ground. Tomorrow should fare better to break out the saws.

 

[rarefish383]

Just finished cleaning up the Cherry that went down on the fence. One good trailer of brush, two rows of wood on the Pick up. $250 in the pocket. As I was leaving I saw a monster tree leaning into a little clump of trees and on the power lines. It was completely snapped off about 4-5 feet up, and hollow. There was an older gentle man picking up sticks under it. I rolled my window down and told him to stay out from under the tree, it was ready to come down. He looked up and smiled and said, "those other trees have it". It was at least 30" where it was snapped off, the little trees holding it might have been 10", and were bent over like a long bow. I rolled my window up and left post haste. If it came down on me it would have squashed my truck like a bug, Joe.

 

[James Miller]

This is the biggest thing I saw blown over around here. Little 355t maid short work of it. Two guys in a state truck pulled up as I was putting the saw away asked if I had it handled and left. Typical PenDot workers there not going to work if someone else will do it.

 

[stumpy75]

Although we had some strong wind when that storm rolled through here(gusts to 50mph), it was nothing compared to when those two lows merged. Had a few large branches down. However, when you were getting blasted, we were on the cold side of the storm, with clear skies and 10 mph NE winds... Stay safe when cutting up those downed trees. They can surprise you quicker than you think. Pull down to the ground as much as you can with a truck or come-along, and enjoy the nice firewood!

 

[Jere39]

Walked a different route through the woods this morning with my trusty Scout, and found this even bigger Red Oak. The uproot ball is over 10' tall. It took out a couple smaller trees on the way down.




Plenty of nice straight grain Red Oak for processing. I've barely cut down any trees this year, with so many brought down by age, storms, and good luck.

 

[HadleyPA]

Had a tree fall on power line up the road Thursday night, we lost power for 36 hours. Only us and 1 neighbor lost it so power company was in no real hurry. Only sticks down in the yard.

 

[unclemoustache]

Nothing has fallen around here for a while. Surprising, because we've had a LOT of rain, and some heavy winds the other day.

 

[allstihl]

had a heck of a storm on fri . heavy wet snow and lots of wind . 22 inches at my place .lots of trees down but none at my place .

 

[lone wolf]

I thought about grabbing a pic of my farmer friends tree across her drive, then I saw the bare copper power line under the tree, and my only thought was getting out of the area ASAP.

Very wise .

 

[Multifaceted]

Got the tops and limbs removed today. Had a few interesting situations with binds and tension, took our time and it went well if not quickly. It was a tangle of five trees all in all. The main large black cherry took down a young shagbark hickory, then broke the tops off of two smaller cherrys growing nearby, and mocked up a small hackberry. Even took out a large shagbark limb from a nearby tree to boot. Had my wife clearing out the branches and brush as I cut, even had her on the 40cc saw limbing and bucking the small stuff. The job ins't finished, but a majority of the important work is complete, and the work area is cleared. Next weekend we'll tackle the big logs.

 

[Husky Man]

Multifaceted, my Wife is Jealous, she got a Husky 445 for Christmas, and is Anxious to try it out, but our wood cutting area is Stihl Snowed in.

The "Rae's Flannel Fest 2018" thread was about Her 50th Birthday Party last month, she had a "Lumber Jill" theme.

My Wife was Tickled to see that she isn't the only Gal that Enjoys wood cutting.

Doug

 

[farmer steve]

Got the tops and limbs removed today. Had a few interesting situations with binds and tension, took our time and it went well if not quickly. It was a tangle of five trees all in all. The main large black cherry took down a young shagbark hickory, then broke the tops off of two smaller cherrys growing nearby, and mocked up a small hackberry. Even took out a large shagbark limb from a nearby tree to boot. Had my wife clearing out the branches and brush as I cut, even had her on the 40cc saw limbing and bucking the small stuff. The job ins't finished, but a majority of the important work is complete, and the work area is cleared. Next weekend we'll tackle the big logs.

looks like a nice pile of wood. i love hickory except it takes a long 2 years to dry but worth the wait.

 

[rarefish383]

It just be rainin Oak trees around here. My buddy called and it looked like all of his woods were collapsing in. He had 3 big dead Oaks fall into a triangle agains one smaller Oaknocking it out of the ground and then the whole mass fell into 2 small Hickory's, all leaning toward his garage.

Got a rope in the top of this one and pulled it down, that let the triangle drop some.

This was one of the legs of the triangle holding every thing wedged so it wouldn't drop. Where the rope is tied, it goes to a snatch block to the right, and back across the log to the drive way. Cut it off at the stump and then pulled it inward and that let another log drop.