Reply #7: Not Fran but Hugo [View All]

[Abbalon]

hit us here in Winston-Salem a few years before Fran. That storm tracked inland on a WNW course. Combined with heavy rains the winds caused much damage and left us without power for six or seven days.

The wet soil couldn't take anymore water and the sustained winds in the 40 to 60 mph catagory kept swaying them around until about seven o'clock in the morning. When the first trees started falling around my house, it took less than 10 minutes and it was all over but the rain.

Damage was tremendous compared to what we usually get.

When Fran came my older sister who lives in Raliegh got an even biger mess and like you was without power for ten days or more.

Be careful. Most of our fatalities were during the storm clean-up. Those limbs and twisted trees have lots of pressure waiting to be released. To many towns folk also decided to remove their own stumps and trees.

Remember that many of these trees that go down are huge and over a hundred years old with upturned rootballs ten feet tall. Handling these monsters takes a backhoe, bulldozer or loader to be safe. Many homeowners are reluctant to pay the price(extra two to three hundred dollars) and use crews without machinery for trees they are not able to safely handle.

One child was behind a large Red Oak stump rootball playing while his father and friends were cutting the stump from the tree. Senseless stuff like this can happen when there is unknown or unrecognized danger.

I had lost my job at AT&T(downsized) and had bought a Dump Truck with my stock money. I teamed up with another fellow and worked for several months around Winston. Hardest, most dangerous, work I ever did outside of steel hanging.

I can not emphisize enough the need to use insured labor for removing trees from homes and property. And for heaven sake don't let childern run around the yard while removal is in progress.

The child that was crushed under a tree stump really affected me. It happened a few houses down from where we were working near the Baptist hospital. The family had made a party out of the lack of power and the clean-up.

SUPERVISE YOUR CHILDERN AND YOUNG ADULTS. THEY DONOT HAVE THE EXPERIENCE TO RECOGNIZE THE DANGER.

Please let men with experience get those very large trees and those that are a jumbled up with stored energy.

The inconveinece of no power pales in comparison to the danger during and after these big storms.

Stay safe.