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| Admin - Razor sharp and independent 2 X Diploma Level 5 qualified arborist Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane
Posts: 12,814
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In a news story many trees and power lines down by what is termed a "gravity wave". The news story is here: Gravity wave leaves fallen trees, power lines - WAFF.com: North Alabama News, Radar, Weather, Sports and Jobs- Quote:
Source: GRAVITY WAVE DEFINED Quote:
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| Moderator - Previously known as JayD Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: TreeWorld, Sydney Australia
Posts: 2,030
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Very interesting, you would not notice this with out the video footage. I wonder if the air waves match the swell out to sea?
__________________ Member: Australian Tree Association Join the Australian Tree Association...Have your voice heard ! Arboriculture, A life long study for some, a passing phase for others © Jeffrey J Darby 2011 |
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| | #3 |
| Semi-mature vigorous tree Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Alabama
Posts: 116
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This extreme weather event was later said to be a wake low rather than a gravity wave, but few people heard the correction. Most of the damage was concentrated in areas where the trees had insufficient roots due to either overcrowding (mostly pines) or a shallow water table such as in the flood zone near the lake. Miraculously there were direct no injuries much less deaths; on a whim at 8:00 pm the evening before my uncle decided drive an hour+ to see his grandsons rather than stay in the campground where his camper was destroyed during the pre-dawn storm where one of the trees that hit it fell across his bed. ![]() Since then it seems like everybody in this area that owns both a chainsaw and a bucket truck thinks they are qualified arborists. I describe the work done by most of them (specifically the illegitimate and obscene practice of topping trees advertised by 67-80% of them) as tornado chic since the results are aesthetically indistinguishable from the damage (to the trees left standing) that it is intended to prevent. (A 6 year old's reaction to a topped shade tree at his grandparents, "Why did you do that for it looks awful... if it blows down now it will punch a bunch of holes in the roof.") The low bid contractor to remove storm debris in the County Park got it because no license, etc. was required if the bid was less than $50,000 (USD), but to keep it legal a judge effectively waived $80k-100k in County Landfill dump fees for the stumps (rather than using them as fish reefs), but hopefully not the limbs (since the city sells the chips), thus the contractor was paid to salvage timber including nearly all of the pines that were still standing (about half total the forested area of the park) that any lumberjack would have paid to get to harvest. As a result these rip-off artists have wiped out virtually all private and public budgets for landscaping. ![]() I've considered starting a thread about an indirectly related near miss accident, but decided to describe it here instead. A recent widow afraid of another storm was having all the pine trees in her yard cut. She picked a tree service based on seeing one "good" job they did, but for her they cut one and left the mess. After she complained for a couple months (no explanation for not returning her calls) they finally came back to finish the job. This time one of the trees fell on the AC unit, but unbelievably missing both the corner eave of the house (perhaps there was a kickback after it got below the eave) and a worker by inches. The root causes of the tree pivoting on the stump include a narrow (and downward angled) notch, little to negative hinge step in the (slightly angled) backcut, and cutting through the hinge, while the worker nearly hit was probably pulling harder on one of the ropes being used to initiate, but obviously failing to control the direction of fall after it went slack. Whoops, they also lied about being insured. Her resulting out of pocket cost to replace the AC (during one of the hottest weeks this year) resulted in my job of replanting safer ornamental trees being indefinitely postponed or canceled. (Other landscape jobs I've lost due exclusively to the HVAC company is a story for another forum/thread, but the short version is leaky exhaust pipes terminated with a funnel that looks like a rain cover.) |
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| | #4 |
| Admin - Razor sharp and independent 2 X Diploma Level 5 qualified arborist Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane
Posts: 12,814
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