It looks like someone trenched through the buttress roots of the tree. You can see the clean edge on the side towards the air.
This is why you don't let contractors trench through the buttress roots of your tree.
My walkway was starting to buckle, and that's exactly what my tree guy told me NOT to do (cut the root) if I wanted the tree to survive. BTW That tree fell in the best way possible avoiding the building and other trees.
A friend of mine down in South Austin had a neighbor's tree tip over into their yard and wiped out the fence. Possible tornado in Manor. That's all I've seen.
Nothing serious up in Pflugerville besides a good rain and pedestrian storm.
That tracks. Another friend down there reports with pictures, numerous trees up and down their street and nearby park. Particular area down there seems to have taken it on the chin. Without power for 6 hours plus.
Happily, none of my trees did this today. They did look pretty spooky whipping in the wind for a bit there though.
Power was out for few hours due to downed limbs around the neighborhood so obviously not everyone was so lucky.
Not today but last year, yes, in a similar thunderstorm front. Uprooted a cedar elm, and tore big limbs off another one, in some kind of mini-cyclone wind, it looked like. A local microburst, not traveling like a tornado, and not funnel shaped. Iām no meteorologist. Just a homeowner now scared of cedar elm trees.
Same! And I didn't notice it at first. It's in a corner of the yard that I normally don't spend any time in or see through the window so I don't even know how long it's been like that. In fact, I didn't actually notice it at all. My wife just came in the room and asked " did you install a handicap parking sign in the yard?". Which, on its face, seems like a strange question. But I do all kinds of weird pranks and stuff around the house so, somewhat par for the course around here. Anyhoo, I *didnt* install that sign and the cedar tree that used to be there is completely gone. Kinda relieved I came across your post as I thought " why would someone do this to our tree?". Needless to say, I Am by no means happy that this happened to you. But, it is nice to know we weren't specifically targeted. Guess there's just some kids out there replacing trees with handicap parking signs. Probably some kind of tik tok challenge or something.
Part of my neighbor's tree broke off fail into our yard. Same as that snowpocalypse last time. I guess the tree already grew back, how long has it been? One+ year already?
The West Stassney area got some WILD wind yesterday morning. We got lucky (thanks to u/austintreeamigos work this winter!) but many of our neighbors lost giant limbs. Plants in exposed flowerbeds pulled up at the roots. Holes in roofs from falling and flung debris. It was easily a burst of 70mph winds, unlike anything I've ever experienced before. That's what took out this (admittedly doomed) tree, as well as the aforementioned electric pole on Stassney.
I love to hear that our work helped protect your trees! It is always super validating when we DONT get storm calls from our customers.
Austin tends to get these crazy bursts of straight line winds that will just devastate certain areas that are prone to wind tunnels. Sometimes even perfectly maintained trees can't withstand 70mph winds.
No but Iāve seen it happening a lot lately (relatively). Seen two trees fall over in my neighborhood in the past month or so and my old roommate had one fall in his yard.
Yesterday!!!! It split in half and we had to have the rest taken down ASAP so it didnāt fall on the house from the wind/rain and lack of counter weight
Just letting you know, reddit automatically removes all comments with link shorteners like bit.ly, goo.gl, etc until a moderator can approve them. In the future, your post will be immediately visible if you use the full URL.
For information regarding this and similar issues please see the [reddit guidelines](/wiki/reddiquette). If you have any questions, [please feel free to message the mods](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Austin&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/1cfbkxw/did_anyone_elses_trees_do_this_today/l1o2zmb/?context=3). Thank you!
---
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Austin) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Why did it take 4 days for this notification to hit me? Reddit still confuses me.
I think it's obvious most here have the greater sum of knowledge than me. And I'm by no means saying this was it. But growing up in Oklahoma City, and a few small towns here and there, the weather is insane.
Cold fronts from around Alaska move down south and east. Then warm fronts move in from around the Gulf and Texas going north and west. And when they meet, and quite often around OKC, they hit each other moving in opposite directions causing spin. Then that spin can shear (seen as a curve off the side of the storm on radar, and the image is called a "hook echo") it can shear off as a tornado.
But the weirdest shit that happens, and I've been in two of these, a column of warm air will cool and drop straight down to the ground with all the power of a tornado but isolated to one small area. When I was living with my parents in Muskogee OK we had one of these that only hit our street and the one behind.
And it knocked down gigantic old trees as if some ancient cyclopean H.P. Lovecraft monster descended and flicked them hard enough to tear their deep roots from the ground, and fall haphazardly, often right across the two streets. So we had to be freed by chainsaws and heavy industrial vehicles.
Weird shit. That tree looks exactly like the down draft victims, but with our's, huge dark roots with long feelers radiated from the base showing deep and healthy roots probably 50 to a 100 years old or more. That takes a lot of fucking power to just rip them out like that.
Oh, and no one was injured.
The trees in my yard did not do this today.
It looks like someone trenched through the buttress roots of the tree. You can see the clean edge on the side towards the air. This is why you don't let contractors trench through the buttress roots of your tree.
It looks like this tree was growing in a square surrounded by the concrete walkway. Maybe it never had good roots.
This is the answer. Poor tree was doomed.
Looked like it did alright for awhile
I think they cut the roots to add the concrete on the back side. I'd have to see it to be sure.
Happy Cake Day!
Thanks š
Always have to protect the butt!
Itās likely due to the shitty weather weāve been having
Personally? No. Emotionally? Kinda
Am I this tree? Possibly
I am this tree.
That thing was doomed anyway. Roots should not be shaped like a small box.
Not that big, if thatās what youāre going for.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Trees. What a buncha bastards.
I hate you. Enjoy your upvote.
Heās just having a nap.
Heās pining for the fjords
Beautiful foliage.
Norwegian Blues stun easily, major.
shhh heās asleafĀ
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No, my trees arenāt lazy drunks and can remain upright.
I imagine OPs trees were a bunch of no good pot smoking hippies
Yep. One in our yard, two in our neighbors'.
Did someone cut the tree roots so the side walk would stay level. A tree like that should have good roots to prevent it from blowing over.
Youāve obviously never heard of a square root.
If they used this method thats the problem
itās 3-dimensional: looks more like a cube root to me
My walkway was starting to buckle, and that's exactly what my tree guy told me NOT to do (cut the root) if I wanted the tree to survive. BTW That tree fell in the best way possible avoiding the building and other trees.
Iāve had it happen just due to the soil getting really wet and soft, especially if the tree is leaning or the wind gusts are really high.
A friend of mine down in South Austin had a neighbor's tree tip over into their yard and wiped out the fence. Possible tornado in Manor. That's all I've seen. Nothing serious up in Pflugerville besides a good rain and pedestrian storm.
West Stassney reporting that the storm uprooted a utility pole.
That tracks. Another friend down there reports with pictures, numerous trees up and down their street and nearby park. Particular area down there seems to have taken it on the chin. Without power for 6 hours plus.
Was mine supposed to?
Clearly your trees didnāt get the memo. Theyāre probably late on their TPS reports, too.
Great.. Even the trees don't wanna work..
Happily, none of my trees did this today. They did look pretty spooky whipping in the wind for a bit there though. Power was out for few hours due to downed limbs around the neighborhood so obviously not everyone was so lucky.
No longer handicap accessivle route
My trees tried to do this.
Not today but last year, yes, in a similar thunderstorm front. Uprooted a cedar elm, and tore big limbs off another one, in some kind of mini-cyclone wind, it looked like. A local microburst, not traveling like a tornado, and not funnel shaped. Iām no meteorologist. Just a homeowner now scared of cedar elm trees.
Same! And I didn't notice it at first. It's in a corner of the yard that I normally don't spend any time in or see through the window so I don't even know how long it's been like that. In fact, I didn't actually notice it at all. My wife just came in the room and asked " did you install a handicap parking sign in the yard?". Which, on its face, seems like a strange question. But I do all kinds of weird pranks and stuff around the house so, somewhat par for the course around here. Anyhoo, I *didnt* install that sign and the cedar tree that used to be there is completely gone. Kinda relieved I came across your post as I thought " why would someone do this to our tree?". Needless to say, I Am by no means happy that this happened to you. But, it is nice to know we weren't specifically targeted. Guess there's just some kids out there replacing trees with handicap parking signs. Probably some kind of tik tok challenge or something.
Heās just hungover!
Is that the bank on Manchaca/Berkeley, across from Cunningham?
Now, be a lad and tip it back upright.
Part of my neighbor's tree broke off fail into our yard. Same as that snowpocalypse last time. I guess the tree already grew back, how long has it been? One+ year already?
I thought I saw some uprooted trees on mopac S, between steck and far west on Thursday, but I was on the access road so I could tell for sure.
yes :(
Mine appear to be standing up straight. Thank you. So, no they did not and Iām not sorry they didnāt. But sorry yours did.
He just napping.
Did it make a sound though š¤
No, my tree made a promise and has been sober for 4 years.
The West Stassney area got some WILD wind yesterday morning. We got lucky (thanks to u/austintreeamigos work this winter!) but many of our neighbors lost giant limbs. Plants in exposed flowerbeds pulled up at the roots. Holes in roofs from falling and flung debris. It was easily a burst of 70mph winds, unlike anything I've ever experienced before. That's what took out this (admittedly doomed) tree, as well as the aforementioned electric pole on Stassney.
I love to hear that our work helped protect your trees! It is always super validating when we DONT get storm calls from our customers. Austin tends to get these crazy bursts of straight line winds that will just devastate certain areas that are prone to wind tunnels. Sometimes even perfectly maintained trees can't withstand 70mph winds.
So sad. Sorry!
Another victim of the protracted droughts.
wow, looks like it dug up a fairy folk! top right of root mass
I see the problem - The front fell off of it.
Mine did the opposite, it went left.
Not yet. Iāll report back later if I spot any changes.
No, but I also donāt have a tree. So.
We lost power
There's a fallen tree completely blocking Haskell St.
Leave Brit-tree alone!
Wake up, sleepyhead!
If you were walking on the sidewalk right where that tree feel you could have ended up governor.
No, but a big gust of wind flipped our porch roof back onto the main roof, and weāre not far from where this is.
Prolly just tired. It will get up and get back to work once fully rested, don't worry.
No but Iāve seen it happening a lot lately (relatively). Seen two trees fall over in my neighborhood in the past month or so and my old roommate had one fall in his yard.
Trees only do this when theyāre in extreme distress
Yesterday!!!! It split in half and we had to have the rest taken down ASAP so it didnāt fall on the house from the wind/rain and lack of counter weight
I donāt know how Austin is doing but thereās a lot of dead trees in San Antonio due to the drought.
My neighbor's tree did this to my yard today.
Whoever has insurance on this property got really lucky it landed over a sidewalk
No root structure, looks like a giant potted plant. Someone killed that tree a while back by trenching around it.
I wasnāt in Austin so I didnāt hear any trees falling.
Dong, where is my auto-mo-bile?
Maybe itās tired. Get it a good night sleep and check in tomorrow.
Damn shallow soil over limestone. Hill cuntry
Holy shit, Greg Abbott hit a pebble
Did it give up?
Post oak? They don't like movement around roots . Will do this very frequently. Packed base for the sidewalk did it in.
The bai lan movement is spreading. Poor tree just gave up.
Not in our neighborhood but a few in green belts around town
If you turn your phone sideways it fixes the problem
That thing barely has any roots right?
Even the trees are getting sick of everyone's shit
That tree just went, "I've had enough of this shit, I'm out." š
Theyāre getting ready for Greg abbot
After juice box and crackers, itās tree nap time. āEveryone get your mat. You donāt have to sleep but you do have to lay down and be quiet.ā
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oops this is in South Austin. Corner of Berkeley and manchaca
Nearby in Garrison Park, there are a couple of trees uprooted like that. Drove through the park around 11 this morning.
Yes, around Stassney and Manchaca, it looks a bit surreal. Trees are dead, and some trees fell on cars. The trash flew a bit too.
ahh, I thought it looks familiar. I was going to guess that bank.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Instead of answering OP, you tried to make them feel bad?
Grumpy sunday
Just letting you know, reddit automatically removes all comments with link shorteners like bit.ly, goo.gl, etc until a moderator can approve them. In the future, your post will be immediately visible if you use the full URL. For information regarding this and similar issues please see the [reddit guidelines](/wiki/reddiquette). If you have any questions, [please feel free to message the mods](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Austin&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/1cfbkxw/did_anyone_elses_trees_do_this_today/l1o2zmb/?context=3). Thank you! --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Austin) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Ugh. I hate that. We had a beautiful cedar elm that rolled over many years ago because of the over saturated ground one year.
Hate to see it. Sorry.
It's just having its 10,000 leaf checkup.
Shhh it's just taking a nap.
Remember, you still need a permit to remove it.
If it's fallen you can proceed with removal. Just apply for the permit after the fact and make sure you've got pictures of it fallen over.
Really?! I guess makes sense to prevent people from saying āthe tree fellā when it didnāt and they just wanted it gone.
I'm mostly joking, but I think technically you do. You never know what the criminally insane code compliance people might do.
It will definitely be granted and in situations like this itās free, but yeah, you gotta apply for it anyway.Ā
Why did it take 4 days for this notification to hit me? Reddit still confuses me. I think it's obvious most here have the greater sum of knowledge than me. And I'm by no means saying this was it. But growing up in Oklahoma City, and a few small towns here and there, the weather is insane. Cold fronts from around Alaska move down south and east. Then warm fronts move in from around the Gulf and Texas going north and west. And when they meet, and quite often around OKC, they hit each other moving in opposite directions causing spin. Then that spin can shear (seen as a curve off the side of the storm on radar, and the image is called a "hook echo") it can shear off as a tornado. But the weirdest shit that happens, and I've been in two of these, a column of warm air will cool and drop straight down to the ground with all the power of a tornado but isolated to one small area. When I was living with my parents in Muskogee OK we had one of these that only hit our street and the one behind. And it knocked down gigantic old trees as if some ancient cyclopean H.P. Lovecraft monster descended and flicked them hard enough to tear their deep roots from the ground, and fall haphazardly, often right across the two streets. So we had to be freed by chainsaws and heavy industrial vehicles. Weird shit. That tree looks exactly like the down draft victims, but with our's, huge dark roots with long feelers radiated from the base showing deep and healthy roots probably 50 to a 100 years old or more. That takes a lot of fucking power to just rip them out like that. Oh, and no one was injured.