Tag Archives: windstorm

We had a very powerful windstorm here two nights ago. We do get them in November or early December in this part of the world (I think it’s a trade-off for having such mild temperatures year-round and so little snow), but this one was by far the strongest one I’ve ever experienced.

I don’t like big winds at the best of times, and this was not the best of times. Many, many areas of Metro Vancouver lost their electricity for hours that night and into the morning, and I considered myself lucky that although my lights flickered a lot, my power didn’t go out. Before I went to bed, I stood at the window and nervously watched my two cedar trees swaying alarmingly with every gust of wind. I knew I wouldn’t sleep well that night.

In the morning, before I got out of bed, I listened. All was relatively quiet. I peeked between the slats of the blinds at my bedroom window. There was a tree pretty much in my face, a tree that is not supposed to be there:

That wind had uprooted my tallest, healthiest cedar tree. It hadn’t quite hit my house when it was knocked over, so fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any damage … other than to the tree, I suppose.

It was still dark out, so when I went outside to investigate further, I couldn’t really see a whole lot, nor could I take photos at that time. I went back inside and fired off an email to my strata manager pleading for him to send out an arborist a.s.a.p. to replant and save that tree. At work later that morning, I called him to make sure he’d received my email and that he was on top of it. He assured me that he was, that he’d already contacted a couple of the members of the strata council, as they would have to authorize it before he could contact anybody to perform any work.

That was yesterday morning. I’m still waiting – and worrying about that poor tree. How long can a tree have its root ball exposed before real damage is done and the tree dies? I don’t want to lose it, as it’s the nicest looking tree I have and it shields my yard from the street and allows me some privacy.

Also, it looks lame leaning into the house like that. And it looks like I’m the dork who doesn’t care that there’s a cedar tree propped up on her house!