Hurricane Charley - Tree Down

Orlando has many tree-shaded streets, and the storm played havoc with them. Thousands of trees were felled by the high winds, blocking streets and driveways and otherwise causing much damage and loss of life. The skyline of Orlando has been changed forever.

One such tree was in our back yard. It was a 30-year-old Laurel Oak, and was our pride and joy. It provided much-needed shade for our house during the afternoons and evenings. With it gone, the yard is particularly bright and empty. We are lucky that when it fell, it stretched its considerable length upon the lawn instead of upon our house or garage. It had, however, snapped the power lines and we were without power, like much of Orlando, for almost a week.

Here is the behemoth.

A closer view, as we saw it out our back window every day. How we came to hate it.

This is the "root ball" of the tree. Little did we know that it had made little pretence of actually putting down roots, satisfying itself with a few token efforts to support itself with some sideways runners. I can't help but feel that if it had made more of an effort, it would still reside outside our home to this day.

After the tree was cut up and removed, this stump remained.