Powerful storm takes down family’s old oak tree

LINDEN, Texas — Greg and Nia Attaway have a giant lying in their front yard.

It’s the family’s oak tree, perhaps 100 years old.

The tree fell during the April 24 powerful windstorm, which took out 400 trees within Linden’s city limits, according to City Administrator Bob Swisher.

The oak missed the Attaway home — barely. Fortunately, as with so many other trees that fell across streets and close to homes, there were no injuries from the powerful storm.

There were, however, several subdued survivors. The Attaways were chased into the middle and safest part of their home at about 9:05 that evening. They’d been watching television weather forecasters who said the storm was going to hit right then. The tree fell around 9:06.

It fell not with a “plop” but, rather, with cracks and sizzles as its trunk pod reared upward and its leaf-bearing limbs cascaded down.

“Had it hit us, we would have been killed, without doubt,” Greg and Nia said.

The unexpected had happened. This oak, symbol of strength and stability — 9 feet in diameter — had been shelter for three generations of family Attaways. It is now dead.

The diameter of the hole its circular trunk left in the ground was twice that of Greg’s height.

“The hole’s big enough for a swimming pool,” he said. “We have older, weaker-looking trees of other kinds on the property and and we lost seven. But not this one. Never thought it would fall.”

The close call had been from a tree the family loved all of its — and their — lives. The oak’s limbs stretched outward over the house where grandparents George and Vergie Bennett and parents Al and Pansy Attaway and their children played.

Now that the tree’s limbs have been surgically trimmed and removed – over two weekends of work by friends with chain saws — the resulting long and heavy trunk appears to have bones and feather-like leaves. To the imaginative eye, it’s a huge dinosaur.

“Let’s call it a Tree-o-Saur,” Greg said. He can be humorous about it, but that Treeo-Saur is going to be hard to ignore and dispose of.

“We cared a lot for the oak,” Nia Attaway said. “It’s sad to see it down. I remember Jim Baggett once asking me if I knew why trees grew so large in the forest. He said the reason was because no one raked the leaves. So through the years, I never raked the leaves away from this oak. I was hoping to let it grow big and strong.”

Maybe the huge oak, in its last moments, realized it was going to be overcome by the wind and fell away so as to avoid hitting the home of its owners. One does feel a kinship when standing next to that giant tree as the Attaways did to have their photograph made.

Their friend is gone. There’s not much left to say.

From the Linden city administrator

EDITOR’S NOTE: City and Texas Department of Transportation crews are out quickly and at all hours when roads are obstructed. City Administrator Bob Swisher in his own words tells of Linden’s response following the April 24 windstorm.

“Our town crews have been working storm-damage removal since April 24, the night of the storm

“Crews cleared roads Saturday and Sunday. Then, on Monday through Friday, they’ve ensured water access and pressure, since many pipes were broken by tree root balls tearing them out.

“We lost power too and communication with most of the town’s wells. The generator backup to our main well on U.S. Highway 59 failed to pick up the well properly. We had all wells and generator functioning manually within 48 hours. And the auto system back up by midweek.

“Meanwhile, crews were involved removing trees in the RV park and those blocking secondary roads to ensure emergency access in all parts of city.

“We opened the old city dump to take in huge amounts of limbs and debris from all over town. We started burning and storing the trailer loads brought in, taking in 25 to 30 loads a day. Kept the dump going from the 26th to May 9th.

“Our star worker there is new employee Mike Riley, who helped everyone unload.

“Scott Ross has been running the park cleanup, which had 30 large trees down all over the park with 20 trailer loads taken to dump

“We are taking whatever wood has commercial value to the mills and will use the money received to help with repairs.

“We will be removing rootballs, stumps and cleaning for weeks to come. Working on getting the trees cut from Crow-Heath Park and sent to the mill.

“We can still open the dump by request, but we do not have the ability to pick up limbs curbside.” — Bob Swisher

Submitted photo above ■ The oak now on the ground at the Attaway home on West Main in Linden, Texas, would more than have covered Greg and Nia Attaway’s home April 24 — with them inside — had it fallen a bit differently.

Staff photo by Neil Abeles left ■ One might as well go out and visit the fallen tree that missed one’s home. Nia and Greg Attaway were both sorrowful at the loss but thankful their house was undamaged.