Tornado vs. Trees

Of course, the tornado won!

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Tornado vs. Trees   |   Tornado vs. Fence   |   The Recovery

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About 9:40 Sunday night, Nov. 10, 2002, an F3 strength tornado roared through Cumberland County, Tennessee, USA. It apparently crossed our street about a quarter of a mile north of our house, where it demolished a brick home and severely damaged two stone homes. Of course this was only a fraction of the total damage caused by this storm.

Everyone at my house was fine, and the house was basically fine. We did not realize at the time how bad this storm was.

Between the wind and two sets of hail stones, the house needed a new set of shingles on the roof and some new siding. The barn was collapsing. Nearly all the trees in the yard were uprooted. Many fell on the 5-ft. chain-link fence (just a year old). Several of the trees were over 75 years old, huge and beautiful. Still, it could have been MUCH worse.

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How they fell & what is left

The diagrams below are based on an earlier aerial photo of the area. North is at the top of the photos. I included a couple of pines across the street to show the wind direction. Only the trees to the back left of our house fell in a different direction! God is good!!

Before: House surrounded by mature trees.	How they fell	Remaining trees: Took down 3 trees that did not fall but were broken. The trees left are all young, except the one oak in the front of the house.

  O = oak (6 - between 75 and 100 years old)
  P = pine ( 3 - between 30  and 40 years old)
  A = apple (about 75 years old)
  M = maple (sugar, silver, red, Japanese)
  W = weeping willow (about 15 years old)
  N = black walnut (about 30 years old)
  R = Bradford pear (about 15 years old)
  C = weeping cherry (about 10 years old)

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Hail: Two waves of golf-ball size hail.

Scattered like popcorn. 2 inches in diameter (after some melting).

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The Damage:

The big oak in the front yard. Downed oak hides the house. Top out of pine tree.

 
Bradford pear split.                                 In back yard, 2 oaks down, top out of 3rd

Pine, walnut down, oaks on house           Satellite dish smashed the fence

 
            Our barn - rather collapsed

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Nearby:

1/4 mile up the road: No more forest. House just past the woods: no back wall, no roof, no garage

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  Tornado vs. Trees   |   Tornado vs. Fence   |   The Recovery