"When a Tree Falls in the City"

Our niece, Emma, was home alone asleep when a giant red oak crashed through her home and served as an unexpected alarm. She was not hurt, thank God, but I can only imagine her fear upon hearing the noise, and then opening the front door and finding this enormous pile of debris trapping her exit.

When her mom and dad pulled up to their stately Atlanta home, they could see the full picture, and the extensive damage caused by this tree. It was on their neighbor’s property and they’d been worried about it for quite some time because it was weakened by extensive ivy coverage. Days of rain in Atlanta after a long drought loosened the root structure and it was the recipe for disaster.

“There is structural damage to the beams, but they can be replaced,” said my sister-in-law. “We are getting a tarp on now because more rain is expected.”

Grateful no one was hurt and that the house can and will be repaired, she said even though they won’t be able to sleep in their bedrooms for weeks, “the back of the house is fine.”

The fact that it’s the neighbors’ tree brings up all kinds of questions, which I’m sure they’ll be dealing with during the repairs; however, my brother-in-law the brain surgeon asked his sister a question that hadn’t occurred to me. He wanted to know who gets to keep the firewood.