If you live in a coastal area, you are well aware of what hurricanes can do. In 2005, Hurricane Ophelia hit our little coastal town. It was a category 1, not a very strong storm, but it made landfall moving at about 5 miles per hour...and then just stopped. It remained on our coast for about 10 hours before moving again and with 75 mile per hour sustained winds, It was a long night.
I've lived in hurricane areas for more than 15 years and have never been worried, but when we heard something very large hit the roof in Tanner's room (he was 6 months old at the time), I was scared. I grabbed him and we spent the rest of the evening in the bathtub...he slept the entire time!
The storm had moved on by 5 a.m., and my husband and I went outside to see the damage. A hundred foot pine tree had fallen and what we heard on the roof were several large branches from the other trees that got in the way.
That tree falling was enough to get me on the phone calling our local tree service! We had 6 other large pine trees along with that one removed from our property. We even offered to have one on our neighbors property removed at no charge to them, because it was actually closer to our house than theirs. They refused...They loved that tree.
Well, this past summer during a tropical storm, the top of that tree fell off and landed on their roof! They had a lot of damage from that tree; I bet they wished they had let us take it down.
When I got home yesterday afternoon and pulled into the driveway, I noticed that something was missing. It was that pine tree, it is now laying in the neighbors yard. Thank goodness it is not on someones home.
I love trees and anything to do with nature, but safety is also very important to me and my family. Pine trees are a hurricane hazard and I feel much safer without them in my yard.
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