Storms rip through area

Monday's high winds brought down trees and branches all over the county, including a tree in front of this house on the corner of West Crown and South Pleasant streets in Princeton. (BCR photo/Barb Kromphardt)

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PRINCETON — It was Mother Nature versus area trees Monday morning, and, in many cases, Mother Nature won.

High winds wreaked havoc across the county early Monday morning, dropping tree limbs and in some cases, entire trees across the area.

Sharon Voice of Princeton had the dubious honor of actually seeing a tree fall on her home, located in the 600 block of North First Street.

Voice had first looked out her back door and saw trees bent sideways, so she decided to look out the front door, for another view.

“I said, ‘Let’s see what’s going on,’” Voice said. “I was looking out the front door when it happened.”

She saw the tree fall and heard the smash, but didn’t realize the tree had gone through the roof until later.

Voice was one of the lucky ones. She got help quickly, in her case from Guither Tree Service.

“When they heard the tree went through my roof, they had someone there within 20 minutes,” she said.

Voice now needs a new roof, her third in 11 years, having lost one to another fallen tree and another to wind damage. She hopes this is the last roof she needs for quite awhile.

“This was the last tree,” she said.

Also losing a tree was Sally Jacobson, whose huge oak tree reclined like a fallen giant in her front yard on Park Avenue West.

Jacobson was watching the weather and debating whether to waken her children when she heard a loud crash and knew a tree had fallen.

“I thought it fell on the house,” she said.

When Jacobson ran outside, she saw the tree had fallen the other way, blocking the street and entangled with power lines. Ironically, Jacobson said the tree was lying next to her untouched garbage can while the neighbors’ cans rolled in the street.

Jacobson said she was sad for the loss of her tree.

“When I think how many years this tree was growing here,” she said, shaking her head. “At least it didn’t hit the house.”

Another Princeton woman almost lost a dog house when an 8-by-8-foot gate blew away. The dog house was blown over onto one side while the woman’s black labrador was still inside it.

The woman noticed the dog house had tipped over and ran outside to bring the dog in. The dog was not injured.

Wayne and Mary Stone of East Billings Street also had some damage at their house.

Wayne Stone said that when he realized the storm was heading his way, he moved his truck into the garage and tied the trailer to the basketball post, which was sunk four feet into the ground.

Mary Stone said they went downstairs when the clouds started to swirl, and then came up to evaluate the damage. She looked out back toward a tree from which hung several squirrel feeders.

“I said, ‘I can’t see the squirrel feeders,’” Stone said. “Then I looked again and realized it was because the tree was gone.”

The Stones and neighbor Diane Eble of East Prouty Drive were out picking up branches Monday morning from their yards. The storm woke her up, Eble said.

“When it started, I heard things banging outside and knew it was branches hitting the house,” she said.

Both Eble and the Stones were philosophical about the damage, knowing it could have been much worse.

“When I think about all the people with the flooding, well, we can handle this,” Eble said.

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