Some Damage from Hurricane Rita

[ejtaylor822]

Hi Shayne,
Thanks for sharing the pictures. Sorry for the damage you took, but, glad to see the house is still standing. Hopefully most of you and your family's belongings are alright. Keep us posted on how things are going down there. Would like to here if you can save that plum tree and what will happen with that wall. Agree that is looks like the roof came up and allowed the wall to bow a little - that is some wind!

Seeing the pine tree reminds me of how these things can endure. When we built our house a few years ago my Mom was worried and told us we should have cut down ALL pine trees as they will fall on the house. I know she has a point and they do fall over as well as large branches snapping off. But to me the most danger are the big hardwoods - oak, maple, etc. When the hurricanes and ice storms come through here it's the big old oaks that just topple over when the ground gets soft. The Pines just will bend like what you have.

-Eddie

 

[chucko]

man form the looks of that wall you almost lost the house. You are very lucky

 

[srscott]

EJ,
I have other pines on the property and none of them look like they went through a hurricane. The neighbor across the street has, I mean had, alot of mature pines and most of them fell over, being uprooted. (I am going over tomorrow with the tractor and help him move it all to the burn pile. Good reason for some seat time /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) (My wife has the camera with her so I won't be able to take any pictures though)
When I was coming home I drove in from the north and the road I took went through a lumber company's pine forest. Every one of those pines snapped about half way up the trunk. This went on for what I would estimate was about 10 miles.

Thank you all for the advice and encouragement. I will go out tomorrow and try to upright the plum tree. I just hope it's not too late. It has been out of the ground for quite awhile now. I will post with the results.

 

[srscott]

Went out today and looked closely at the plum tree... The trunk "Y's" out right at ground level and it is split in two. I called a local arborist and was told that the tree could possibly live for awhile but is almost certain to get disease or insect infestation. Basically it's a cut it up now or wait for a few months and cut it up then.