Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: A lucky escape!

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-04-2003, 04:53 AM:

Shortly after I got up this morning I heard a loud creaking sound coming from the garden.

Thinking that Saddam Hussein was attacking York (well, that would explain why they can't find him in Iraq) I went out to investigate. I soon traced the source to an apple tree near the bottom of the drive, and as I approached it, over it went!

I had to run out of the way pretty f---ing quickly, and only managed to get clear with seconds to spare! That's one of my nine lives gone, I guess. A few seconds later, next door's cat emerged from the fallen branches with leaves all over him. I guess he'd been up that tree when it went over.

It wasn't windy at all and the thing just went over without warning. We've had four days of very heavy rain in York so I can only assume that the sodden ground just gave way. The best bit is that there is a 50ft silver birch just to the left of this picture, and if that goes down too there won't be much left of the building next to it. Oh well, it's the landlord's problem now...

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-04-2003, 10:24 AM:

Glad you made it out safely, Leo, that was a close call.
Looks like a lovely estate.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 07-04-2003, 10:28 AM:

Glad you're alright Leo, the question is which one of your 9 lives was this?

quote:
Looks like a lovely estate.

I was thinking the same thing Tim! [Smile]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-04-2003, 12:56 PM:

What was Gordon's cat doing in the tree?

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 07-04-2003, 01:21 PM:

Bush was right. Obviously, Saddam has secret weapons that allow him to attack individuals by tipping over trees. All important government personnel should stay clear of trees until the weapon has been located!

What an evil plan! - "Make it look like an accident!"

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-04-2003, 04:03 PM:

Man, that tree incident gives me a flash-back of nearly getting killed by one in Virginia back in the early 1980's. I was a high school student back then.

My parents and I were driving back home trying to outrun a really bad thunderstorm before it rained and hailed on our dogs, which were left outside in the backyard. The storm hit when we were still on the road. Tree branches and stuff were flying through the air. My mother, who happened to be driving, was always delivering these driver's education tips (which irritated the hell out of me). She said, "now Bobby, this is a time where you could have a really bad car wreck if you weren't careful." Right after she delivered that dose of wisdom I heard a loud, crunching "pop" off to my left.

I turned to see a giant oak tree falling towards our Ford Escort. I didn't have a horrified reaction. It was more like, "what's wrong with this picture?" Very luckily the tree trunk, which was a good 4 feet in diameter, fell behind our car. If that part of the tree had hit the car my mother, my father and I would have been crushed instantly. But the other branches that hit the car blew out all the windows and bent the car frame really bad, enough for it to be considered totaled. We got out of the vehicle. Rain was pouring down in torrents, lightning was striking close all around but that seemed like a minor distraction compared to what had just happened. My mother was really upset.

Other drivers were amazed we lived through it because all they saw was our car disappearing in all the leaves and branches of that big tree. It turned out a "gustnado" (a small tornado on the gust front of a thunderstorm) is what toppled that tree and several others along a clear path.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 07-04-2003, 06:48 PM:

Four years ago a tree fell onto our house and took down the power lines. As a result of this, we were unable to leave the house because the power lines draped both front and back entrances, and the ground was fairly covered by live wires so leaving out the windows was not an option.

As it knocked out our power, and not forseeing something like this, I had no standard telephones, all cordless. And my cellphone was in my car.

So what to do!!!

We yelled out the window across the street to the old guy who hated me with his very life to call 911.

It took about six hours to clean the mess up and get our power back on. And of course I fled the scene as soon as possible. When you are locked in your own house against your will, it is amazing how quick you want to bolt! Otherwise, I would never leave.

Dave

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 07-04-2003, 08:47 PM:

Similar incident happened to me. I live in an apartment building consisting of 4 units. My building is behind Raplh's Thriftway grocery supermarket. Between me an the rear of the store is a store employee parking lot. Well about a year ago right out of the blue a huge Maple tree fell over towards my building. [Eek!]

It missed my building by 4 feet and fortunetly none of the store employees had parked in that particular area. Turns out the tree was sick and the roots were rotted out.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-05-2003, 11:43 AM:

quote:
Looks like a lovely estate.

Pic of garden with tree cleared up...

It's a really nice flat, which I was lucky to find. The building is a seventeenth century coaching inn (York was on the main stagecoach route from London to Scotland, hence Dick Turpin's association with the place) very near the city centre, which is now converted into five flats. Mine is the smallest, one-bedroom flat in the south-facing annexe with the two small windows. You can just make out the brickwork around those windows which is where the original arch through which the stagecoaches came has been filled in. The garden is the largest of any house in the vicinity, so needless to say all the local cats are constantly fighting over the territory.

The flat is no more expensive to rent than its equivalent in a nondescript 1950s block but there are one or two drawbacks, e.g. smoking is absolutely verboten anywhere in the house and garden and there is no central heating. But given the house itself and its location (ten minutes walk from the centre of town, on the main road out to the north and only 15 minutes' walk from a main line railway station) those are trivial complaints. In the summer it's lovely to have a beer in the garden after getting in from work on a Friday... but from now on I think I'll wear a hard hat!

Still no idea what took the tree down. The roots don't look in any way suspect to me (though granted, I don't know what to look for), and I still think the Sunday-Thursday of almost constant rain must have had something to do with it.

Posted by Michael Harlow (Member # 1353) on 07-05-2003, 01:11 PM:

That must have been one very heavy cat [Smile]

Glad you're ok

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 07-05-2003, 01:23 PM:

was the tree apple loaded. A lot of rain to the roots of an apple tree can weaken them to the point that a loaded aplle trees wait can pull the roots up causing it to tip over. I have seen this happen a long time ago.

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 07-05-2003, 02:53 PM:

Beautiful digs you've got, Leo!
And is the Yorksire Rose pub nearby?
You probably can stand the lack of central heating with all the Yorkshire sheep on the moors to provide the makings of thick winter woolens, and a glowing peat fire on the hearth.
I remember how carefully our B & B hosts cultivated their roses when my wife and I toured. And the potteries and stately homes. (Must plant a white rose of York to complement all the Queen Elizabeth pink ones I propagated from a single Mothers'Day
plant 20 years ago.)
http://www.yorkshirenet.co.uk/
Cheers!
Gerard

Posted by Travis Hubrig (Member # 1745) on 07-05-2003, 09:54 PM:

Christian,

Actually Saddam's secret weapons are cats! He decided that Weapons of Mass Destruction are too High Profile, and training killer kitties would be much easier. I think he got the idea from Stephen King.

Warning to all: If you see a cat in a tree, be alert!

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-05-2003, 10:26 PM:

I saw a tree fall over for no (outwardly) appearent reason a few years ago.

Certain species of maple trees have a tendancy for the sap to freeze when the weather gets very cold. Once that happens, the water inside the tree, which is now turned to ice, begins to expand and crack the tree open from the inside.

It's rather eerie to see it happen... ESPECIALLY when it happens at 4:00 AM right outside your bedroom window! I was awaken by the sound of wood cracking. It started out as an intermittent "Crack! Crackity-Crack!" sound. It was similar to popcorn popping but louder. The next thing I heard was a loud "POP!" sound followed by creaking. The tree split right down the middle just as if it was hit by a giant axe. One side fell to the ground and upset the balance of the other side. It came down about 1/2 minute later. It missed my car by just a few feet.

I hear that in some parts of the world when it gets REALLY cold, that not only do trees crack but they have been known to actually EXPLODE! I wonder if that's really true? It'd be cool to see (a video of) it happening!

Posted by Steven Privett (Member # 718) on 07-07-2003, 11:20 PM:

That is a really nice flat. Sorry about the apple tree. I guess it was just its time to go. Be careful, I've heard trees kill over in threes.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 07-08-2003, 12:50 PM:

I've seen trees 'explode' before. It normally only happens when it gets really cold early in the fall while the sap is still running. With so much sap in the tree freezing all at once it doesn't take too long for the tree to blow itself apart.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-08-2003, 11:08 PM:

I didn't know trees could blow apart from sap. I have seen a couple trees blown apart by lighting. Just a few days ago we had a storm here in Lawton and I saw one tree get hammered by lighting right off I-44; knocked a few of the upper branches loose. The same storm put a lighting bolt into the chimney of a friend's house nearby. It blew bricks out and fried all the television sets and computer inside the house.