Last night was quite upsetting. About dinnertime, storms were coming through the area. Our development cleared all the woods out from behind us last year to make room for new houses (which are NOT selling in this economy). They left a few raggy, good-for-nothing tall pine trees in place. Those trees give NO shade and are not nice-looking, but I guess they were too lazy to take them all. SO.......the end result is a wide open expanse of land with just a few trees to stop the wind....and then OUR house. One of them cracked (about 6 feet above ground level) when a big wind gust hit it and the tree slammed into the rear corner of our house. There is a substantial amount of damage to the corner of the house where the master bathroom is.
Tree people came out and worked until after dark to remove enough of the tree to tarp the roof...and they are due back this a.m. to finish the job. They will need to bring a crane as the tree is poised above our shed and will drop down ONTO the shed if they just cut it in sections as they would normally do. One of the most upsetting parts is that the tree is not on OUR lot, but since this is an "act of God", the landowner doesn't have to pay (at least in the state of Delaware). SO......we have to pay our deductible (seems like the landowner should at least pay THAT for us) and our insurance company needs to deal with this. The adjuster will be here on Monday morning. It doesn't seem fair....since it's not OUR tree on OUR lot....but that's how it is here. There is legislation pending to change that, but it's not passed yet....just our luck. We have a lot of photos, but I'm not going to show any as it's too upsetting for me right now. This is, I believe, the only post I've ever done here with no photo...but I'm sure you will all understand.
34 comments:
Wow how scary! Thank God no one was hurt! That stinks about the land owner not being responsible :(
DH and I were just talking about this freaking thing last night! I'm on 3 acres with all the trees on my lot cleared on the sides but my back acreage is a forest. With all the storms rolling through I constantly worry about something coming down and crashing through our roof. The trees around me are tall! I didn't know such a law would exist and have always thought that the owner of the land would pay...wow...eye opener for me first thing this morning. I'm in NC and will have to learn more about our state laws on this one. I'm sorry this has happened to you Pat...I know that I too would be terribly upset.
That's horrible - if there is anything positive out of this, (I know that's hard to see anything positive) at least, no one was hurt, and the damage was limited to the master bath- and you weren't in there when that happened!!!Insurance co's are a pain to deal with - hope it goes smoothly! Try thinking of it as a an unplanned renovation instead of a repair!!! :>)
I am so sorry Pat. It is so upsetting for you to go through this. It might be an act of GOD for that land owner to get a piece of your mind!! I hope all is resolved quickly...
I hope you get the "good" company to do the repair work Pat. It just irks me that the land owner isn't liable for this.
Crispy
Pat, I am so sorry to hear that this happened to you. I know how upsetting it must be. Just remember what Julian of Norwich said, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
peace be with you my friend.
These things are always upsetting, but that feeling will pass as things get repaired. Then you will be able to give thanks that no one was hurt.
Pat I agree with Barbara. At least no ne was hurt.
We had that very same problem in North Carolina a few years back. All the properties are "heavily wooded" and others trees ended up falling in the "wrong" properties. What a nightmare. I hope all goes smoothly for you and yes, it is a bright spot that no one was hurt.
oh pat.
bless your heart.
i'm glad that yall weren't hurt.
So sorry to hear of the tree problem. That is how it is here in Ohio too. We have a mobile home and rent the lot. Many years ago a tree like yours fell on the neighbors car during a storm and they had to pay for the damages. It reall does not sound fair. Hope all goes well for you now.
Sorry to hear about the tree. I am so glad no one was hurt but what a hassle. Hope everything goes smoothly for you.
I am so sorry for you Pat. We have a tree story to tell to. Only, it didn't land on our house. It landed on our car. And our car wasn't in our driveway. We were driving on a road and all 4 of us were in it. It landed right on top of us. Like you, we got no help from anyone on the cost of the repair. But, we were all safe and so are you and your hubby. So, we have that to be thankful for!
Hopofully things will work out and thank God your Ok. Keep us in touch and I'm sure you will be in all our thoughts.
I've just come from Linda's blog to send you a cyber hug and hope that everything will be ok for you soon. x
That just STINKS, Pat! I'm so glad that no one was hurt, though. What a pain in the butt and an inconvenience (not to mention an unnecessary expense)! Imagine all the fabric you could buy with that $1000 deductible... on second thought, don't imagine it. It might make you cry :(
Being from the South we know about Pine trees! They do not have rampant root systems and blow over easily.
It is amazing that the people who own the land are not responsible. This makes no sense! If the lots had homes on them wouldn't the homeowners be responsible?
Well, as has been said I'm so glad no one was injured in this mess. Hopefully insurance can work it out. DANG.
Pat
so sorry pat......keep your chin up, I know it's tough..living in the mountains, we see this kind of thing very often.
I am so sorry to hear about your house. I hope that things will get better and my thoughts will be with you.
So sorry to hear about the tree falling on your home. This happened to me in an ice storm, put 4 very large limbs into my kitchen, while the rest of the tree (yes it was a pine) fell into the back yard. It sounded like WW3 when it happened, mine was due to an ice storm, and the weight of the ice brought down a 150 ft tree like it was nothing.
Oh, Pat! How horrible! Glad you're okay though. Our neighbour in back of us has many huge trees. They are all softwood and some of the branches are already dead and falling down. But he will do nothing about them because he is renting and the owner is in his 90s and doesn't care. I fear that one of these days a huge part of one of his trees is going to come crashing down on my solarium!
Pat, I left a message this morn but I don't see it and I'm thinking I must not have entered something right. I've done this before. Oop! Well, I hope you are doing better now. I thought about you all night and hoped you were able to sleep. I meant to ask and forgot but was there other storm damage in your area? I read of flooding in New Jersey so it sounded like quite a few folks had a stormy night.
Thank goodness no one was hurt when the tree fell! I'm so sorry to hear of the aggravation you have to go through with sorting out this mess.
What a mess...sorry to hear about this and wish you the best of luck with cleaning this mess up!
Pat, you are amazing, a tree falls on your house and you don't miss a single blog post :) You and your husband are in my prayers, take care!
Well...Pat the only good thing I can say is that you nor your husband got hurt....but your pocket book got hurt in the process. I hope you are feeling somewhat better but that will come when your home is repaired and life is back to normal...what ever that is???
I am so sorry. Having been through several hurricanes when I lived in FL, I do know about the damage from wind and flying trees. My thoughts are with you.
So sorry Pat. It is hard to understand. The law is the same in Indiana. A neighbors dead tree fell onto my dd car and totalled it. The thing is, the car had JUST been given to her that weekend and they did not have it insured yet. So she was completely out of a car! It had sat for awhile and the gifter had dropped the insurance. They felt bad and so did my dd. The neighbor, not so much! Glad you are insured and no one was hurt.
I am sorry about the trees hurting your house!
I hope all resolves soon! It;s not fear, for sure!
Sorry this happened, bummer. Sending you hugs.
What a scarey thing to have happen. I'm glad no one was hurt. I hope you were not in bed when the tree came down! That law is very unfair!!
Oh dear. I always wonder why things happen like this. We live in a more fragile world than we think sometimes.
So sorry to hear about the tree. I learned about it from Linda's blog. Hope the insurance company moves quickly so you can get started soon on the repairs. We're all thinking about you.
Sharon in Wa State.
Pat that sure is scarey. We have alot of trees around our house and my studio, I hope none of them come down. Good luck in getting everything fixed right.
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