These are some pictures of the damage caused by a nice and sunny weather windstorm which lasted from Saturday morning Jan.17 thru Monday Jan 19, 2009.  They were only 30-40 mph winds but it was a gust around 60 that took this one down. We lost the below hemlock which really wasn't surprising, I'd been keeping my eye on it for years. The base of the tree had been damaged probably when they built the house back in 1992 and it just took some time for it to give in, I guess. We had recently had lots of snow, 18" total, and followed by enough rain to melt most of that snow. That wet ground probably didn't help the shallow root system hold on either.
The hemlock completely blocked our driveway and uprooted a small amount of driveway pavement, but nothing too big to deal with. Good thing Wendy or I didn't have to go out anywhere. The night it happened I couldn't sleep because of the wind noise, and I heard it go down about midnight. I continued to hear numerous "thuds" during the night but after walking around the yard in the morning there was nothing much else down except branches and some tree tops broken off. Boy do I hate wind.

Again a tree came down over our driveway and tore up some pavement Wendy holding down the tree Another view The rootball surrendered back to its home after the cut, just like I hoped. Still one piece to cut and drop though Rick examining the damage left The spot after a bit of cleanup Doing some branch cutting More branch cutting Branch cutting Walking the log Watching the wind in the other trees Leftover driveway damage All cleaned up The remaining stump, and our totem pole with face to greet our guests in the background 3 nice big logs for benches or other projects