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A calm day, a crack of fate - great oak suddenly splits
St. Petersburg Times ^ | July 19, 2005 | EMILY VASQUEZ

Posted on 07/19/2005 1:41:41 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

ZEPHYRHILLS - The lake at Zephyr Park was like glass early Monday evening as 63-year-old Nancy Booth and her two adult children sat at a picnic table beneath a great oak tree.

No rain, no wind, mostly clear.

Then, witnesses heard a horrible crack. The oak at the water's edge was splitting.

Booth's children scampered out of the way, but one of the huge falling limbs pinned their mother to bench where she sat.

Booth's daughter, Caloie, ran to a passing van yelling for help.

The driver, 39-year-old Gary Killeen, having seen the tree fall, jumped out of the van and ran toward the table.

Nancy Booth still was alive, Killeen recalled, and her son, Glenn, was trying to lift the branch. The mother looked at Killeen.

"Please help me," he recalled her saying.

Then, she closed her eyes.

Killeen and at least a dozen other bystanders rushed to the scene and tried to lift the limb.

Minutes later, Booth's son told Killeen to stop. The limb couldn't be lifted, and Nancy Booth was dead, Killeen said.

Debbie Streets, who has walked the path around the lake nearly every night for a decade, said she often saw the Booths.

Streets didn't know Booth and her children by name, she said, but they always smiled as she passed.

It was about 6:30 p.m. Monday when she had passed the Zephyrhills family, sitting around the wooden table.

"I just started hearing the tree rip apart," Streets said. "You couldn't see anyone."

The crack was so sudden, Streets said, it seemed inexplicable.

"A hurricane came and didn't knock any trees down," she said.

Zephyrhills police Chief Russell Barnes said the great oak appeared to be in "good shape."

The tree was alive and mostly green except for a dead part in the center, but that was surrounded by good bark, he said.

The limbs that fell near the table were about a foot in diameter, Barnes said.

"For as long as that tree's been there, it could have happened at any time, it could have fallen in the middle of the night," Barnes said. "For (her life) to end like this is just ridiculous."

--Times staff writer Jamal Thalji contributed to this report.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: tree; yourtime
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Are trees more dangerous than SUVs?

Falling tree kills man as he sleeps***.....But Ed Timmons died — on the morning of his 36th birthday. It took tree cutters seven hours, using a crane to remove large segments of the massive poplar, its trunk 40 inches across, before his body could be retrieved.

The tree had fallen across the back yard — over a swing set and bright yellow slide — before smashing across the roof and into the front yard. Other trees in the back yard had also fallen, but in different directions.....***

1 posted on 07/19/2005 1:41:42 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
[The oak at the water's edge was splitting. Booth's children scampered out of the way, but one of the huge falling limbs pinned their mother to bench where she sat.]



Then the Lorax popped out of the trunk and simply said, "It's Bush's fault."
2 posted on 07/19/2005 1:46:38 AM PDT by spinestein ( "Gentlemen! We've got to do something to save our phoney-baloney jobs!" - Gov LePetomaine)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Maybe.... I had one oak smash my truck another smash our

dock, one smashed our deck, and still one more smashed our

roof in. All separate incidences... Din't see a SUV in

sight. Those oaks whooped our stuff but good..
3 posted on 07/19/2005 1:52:27 AM PDT by fivekid ( STOP THE WORLD!!!!! I wanna get off.........)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

What a lousy way to go.

Kiss your family every day.

You never know when the last day might be.


4 posted on 07/19/2005 1:52:38 AM PDT by DB (©)
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To: spinestein
Unrelated googled image

It looks like oak trees don't need a lot to sustain growth.


5 posted on 07/19/2005 1:52:58 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: DB
.........You never know when the last day might be.

Indeed!

6 posted on 07/19/2005 1:53:39 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: fivekid

If there are any left, cut them down!


7 posted on 07/19/2005 1:54:26 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Here's a similar one:

Nanette Meech, 76, of Sante Fe, was canoeing down the Brule River in Winsconsin with her daughter Laurie on 15 July, when a 40ft poplar tree, about 18in diameter, that had been gnawed by a beaver, crashed down on her head with fatal consequences. Denver Post - 17 July 1993


I used to work for this woman who went by the nickname "Nucy" (short for nuisance). Ironically, I worked for her by cutting down nuisance trees on her property.
8 posted on 07/19/2005 1:55:25 AM PDT by spinestein ( "Gentlemen! We've got to do something to save our phoney-baloney jobs!" - Gov LePetomaine)
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To: spinestein

The beaver are in cahoots with the trees.


9 posted on 07/19/2005 1:58:20 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: All
Google: 1,120,000 for tree kills

An example:

Falling Tree Kills 2 In Moving SUV

POSTED: 9:42 pm PDT May 22, 2005 UPDATED: 10:02 am PDT May 23, 2005

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- A Bellingham couple and the family dog died when a 70-to-80-foot tree fell on and crushed their SUV as they drove southbound on Lake Whatcom Boulevard Sunday in Bellingham.

Oliver G. Larson, 69, his wife, Mary I. Scott-Larson, 45, and their dog died at the scene, Washington State Patrol troopers said.

Witnesses driving behind the SUV and on the opposite side of the road saw the tree snap, fall across Lake Whatcom Boulevard and land on the couple's 1998 white Ford Explorer XLT about 12:15 p.m.

Firefighters cut the tree to remove it from the SUV and used the "jaws of life" to pry the roof of the Explorer open, said Trooper Jim Van Diest. The investigation is continuing, but Van Diest said strong winds may have been a factor.

The National Weather Service said wind gusts were recorded at 20 to 25 miles per hour between noon and 1 p.m. in the Bellingham area Sunday.***

10 posted on 07/19/2005 2:03:43 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Haven't enough people died?!

It's time the government did something to protect us from these dangerous trees!

We need to ban them and cut them all down BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
11 posted on 07/19/2005 2:09:13 AM PDT by spinestein ( "Gentlemen! We've got to do something to save our phoney baloney jobs!" - Gov LePetomaine)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
We have way to many to count. We have had I don't even know how many companies come out for estimates. It is always the same answer we cant do it. So then we had one of those dozer thingys come in and at least try to knock down the ones that were leaning. Now they are just leaning littler more..... The main problem is is that our trees are huge, and when the ground gets soaked they just go. Also oaks do not do well in high winds, they just snap.

Sheesh, did not mean to write a book...:)
12 posted on 07/19/2005 2:12:54 AM PDT by fivekid ( STOP THE WORLD!!!!! I wanna get off.........)
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To: fivekid

Hey!! I used spell check........


13 posted on 07/19/2005 2:15:29 AM PDT by fivekid ( STOP THE WORLD!!!!! I wanna get off.........)
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To: spinestein; fivekid

I think trees have been getting a free ride.

Look at all the fire damage they've caused.


14 posted on 07/19/2005 2:20:06 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: spinestein
Ironically, I worked for her by cutting down nuisance trees on her property.

Man, that story has karma or revenge or something written all over it.

15 posted on 07/19/2005 2:21:38 AM PDT by Flyer (Safely Observing from Houston * Post Grad - University of Google *)
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To: spinestein

Damn beaver!.....


16 posted on 07/19/2005 2:23:11 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Ban acorns


17 posted on 07/19/2005 2:27:51 AM PDT by ken5050 (Ann Coulter needs to have children ASAP to pass on her gene pool....any volunteers?)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Somehow, it's Boosh's fault.

Seriously, my wife's long association with churches & the synagogue in town gave her access to their records, and it's amazing how many people get killed "by misadventure"-- falls, trees, drowning in 3 inches of water-- just about any way you can imagine to get killed has happened, repeatedly.

18 posted on 07/19/2005 2:29:37 AM PDT by backhoe (-30-)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Yes they are EEEvil!

Burn them!!! BURN them ALL!!!! :)

Who do we call to do that? LOL!!!

Can't call Bush cause it's all his fault:)

Do We have a sectary's of trees?

What to do what to do........
19 posted on 07/19/2005 2:32:14 AM PDT by fivekid ( STOP THE WORLD!!!!! I wanna get off.........)
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To: fivekid
Do you think the Society of Environmental Journalists will raise the alarm?

People and their property are important too!

20 posted on 07/19/2005 2:39:17 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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