Downed Trees, Lines, Mailboxes and a Dented Truck

Here is our sad little redbud tree in the back yard. It is all bent over from the weight of the ice. You can see up to an inch of ice build up on the deck railing. Gary thinks we can save this little redbud tree. It seems to be doing much better now. We also think our bald cypress, our small red maple and our Bradford pear will all be okay. They were all pretty young tender trees.

Here is our beautiful big maple tree in the back yard which is only about half standing now. It will need to have some trimming but is still there. Much of it crashed to the ground and now looks sad and bare. It is a huge tree and has always been very strong. This time it lost the battle to the ice storm. One of the large limbs fell on our neighbors truck making a huge dent in the side top on the bed of his truck. It just missed him by a second or two as he got into his truck and closed the door. Trees were breaking and snapping and falling to the ground all night long on Friday & Saturday. That was a horrible sound and so terribly loud.

Here are some of the limbs from our maple tree before all of them fell to the ground. It just missed my snowball bush and also the neighbor's house. Thank goodness most of the damage was just to the trees and lines - not to people or homes.

This is the pecan tree right across the street from our house. This large limb broke into and crashed into a power line. It fell across their driveway and is still down waiting for repair.

Here is another photo of the downed line. You can see the driveway on the left. The line is about 3 foot from the ground. City Utilities trimmed the tree off the road so cars could pass. The line is still down and it will be weeks and maybe months before some of the lines are all repaired.

Here is the same tree looking from the opposite direction.
You are looking at our home in the background.

This is looking from our deck to our neighbor, Cindy's back yard. She lost a lot of trees and also the awning to her garage was completely knocked to the ground by a huge limb. It looked like a war zone. She had extensive damage and she is trying to take care of it alone. Her husband is now in Kuwait and will be gone for almost a year. She is still without electricity. We lent her our kerosene heater to use until she gets her power back on. She is with a different electric company than we are. Her two small sons have helped her to move a lot of limbs and brush out of the driveway and yard.

Here is another photo of Cindy's yard looking at the awning before it completely fell to the ground. Notice the frozen basketball in the hoop.

Here is Cindy on her porch with their two little dogs.
Her yard was totally unsafe to walk in at this time because of falling ice and limbs.

Somewhere under this pile of broken limbs, brush and ice is Cindy's destroyed mailbox. You can see our large tree on the left in the back ground. So much damage in such a short amount of time.