Crime & Safety

Weakened Trees Surrender

Several enormous arbors fall in sunny day wind.

Emergency responders, tree maintenance crews, and utility workers were once again chasing falling trees and limbs Thursday.

A maple tree toppled all the way across Weed Street near Knapp Road around 2:30 p.m., taking power lines with it and shutting down the road into the evening. While driving by Monday, Tree Warden John Howe had noticed the tree leaning and splits in the trunk, possibly from the maple creaking in last month's severe storm, and emailed Connecticut Light & Power about the problem. The tree fell just hours before a CL&P crew was slated to arrive to help take it down. 

The occupants of a pick-up truck getting ready to back out of a driveway on Brushy Ridge Road survived a near miss there Thursday afternoon. A tree fell, crushing the bed of the truck. Had the driver started backing up just seconds earlier, the cab could have been underneath the tree. 

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A huge limb also dropped from a maple on West Road that the Tree Warden had tagged for removal in September, damaging a fence on the front edge of the property. The homeowner and neighbors are challenging the removal of that tree and the removal or severe pruning of 21 others in court.

The parking lot in front of the main house at Irwin Park was partially blocked by two huge limbs that fell from a maple tree there.

Find out what's happening in New Canaanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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Do you have a tree tale from Thursday? Share it by posting a comment below or e-mail amy@patch.com.


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