Tree Falls on Campers

[Ramble~On]

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880611024

A large tree fell across a creek and landed on several campers in North Carolina.

[Freeleo]

i remember in third grade a tree fell on a tent with a seventh grade boy scout and he lost his life....i think of that every night i camp in the woods and most likely always will

[envirodiver]

Because of the pine borers there are so many dead pine trees out there, I'm very careful about looking up when setting camp. This sounds like a freak incident though with the Hickory tree.

[Cool AT Breeze]

About two weeks ago I was sitting just inside Jenkins Shelter after an all day hard rain when a oak branch fell about fifty feet hitting the shelter roof above my head. Needless to say I about s%#t my pants.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

::: Dino seen giving thanks the boys and man are OK :::

[Lellers]

We had straight line winds come through our neighborhood last night. Three large 150 year old oaks came down, but missed doing any serious damage. There were plenty of large limbs down all over the place and 150,000 customers without power. We've been sawing and stacking oak all day. In the 23 years that I've lived here in this wooded neighborhood, I've seen trees crash down and crush lots of things. They're very scary. I think about it whenever I'm in the woods.

[Incahiker]

Hmmm..... While I do look around and make sure there are no widow makers around me, a saying I always remember is "When its your time to go, its your time to go!" People die every day from the oddest things. Just imagine, your eating your steak dinner, its great, bam, your dead from choking. Putting a light in your bathroom, slip and fall, dead.... list goes on and on.


I think about these things too, but like I said, if its my time to go so be it.
Too bad about these young kids, it does sound like a freak accident, hope they recover quickly and get to use the tree as fire wood.

[Bob S]

I had a large tree branch fall where I normally park my van. Only for some reason I didn’t park it there that day.

[Odd Thomas]

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880611024

A large tree fell across a creek and landed on several campers in North Carolina.

"“Apparently, it just fell across the creek in one of these ironic situations, a rare situation,” said Kreigsman."

Someone doesn't know what irony is.

[mkmangold]

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880611024

A large tree fell across a creek and landed on several campers in North Carolina.

If nobody else was there to hear them, would they still make a noise?

[Ramble~On]

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880611094

I might have missed this being posted elsewhere but figured I might as well post this story here. A tornado ripped through a Boy Scout camp killing four and injuring many. SAD news.
Sounds like this wasn't your average Boy Scout Summer Camp but more of a Leadership Camp. The Scouts were mostly between 13-18. They are still looking for more under the debris and this story probably isn't over.

I agree that when your number is up - That's it..game over.

I spent some time fighting forest fires in the NW...sometimes the fire will continue to burn below ground and trees root systems will cease to be.
With a thick layer of ash on the ground and scorched soil...entire stands of pines will look to be "sturdy" but the slightest push or breeze will send them falling like dominos in all directions causing a mass chain reaction of falling trees...BIG TREES. Often they make no noise. Such was the case one day as a friend went about sharpening his chainsaw..it wasn't running but he was kinda hunched over it as a tree came down and smacked him in the back of the head and into the saw. He lived.

I recall a squirrel running up a tree which started to fall and the squirrel jumped to another...which started to fall and we watched as this squirrel did some amazing manuevers trying to find something solid.

[modiyooch]

I tent alot, and this has always been a concern for me. I'm also concerned about a bear tripping over my tent lines and crushing me with his fall. Could this actually happen? When I was young and hiking alone, I had a zillion fears that I just got tired of being afraid.

[Blissful]

Last year a thru hiker had a tree fall on his tent. Hence his trail name Widowmaker.

[Bare Bear]

Ask Gumby from Fl about leaning against a solid looking tree on the FT and having it fall over. Scared us all then we had a good laugh. Later that same day she sat down on a log and it broke , tumbling her to the ground. Spooky..................................

[Quoddy]

I have no fear of falling trees while camping, but perhaps a view of my house where I spend the rest of my nights will explain that.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/2714378008_cdbb368dc0.jpg?v=0

[oops56]

Do you put Christmas lights on them?:eek:

[SurferNerd]

Anyone find it ironic the name of the campground is called Falling Lake...hmmm, and we wonder why no-one questions the theory behind the naming.

[Plodderman]

Always a concern but sometimes I forget to look around until in the middle of the night a big storm comes in and the thought of a tree limb falling crosses my mind.

Glad the kids and counselor are okay.

[Hoop Time]

This can happen in relatively good weather as well. In July 2004 a local Cub Scout was killed when a tree fell on his tent in the group tenting area of Pine Grove Furnace State Park (the park at the midpoint of the AT).

Reports at the time said weather was calm, with fog and drizzle, but no lightning or wind.

In Pa. state parks, they do semi-annual surveys of trees in the camping areas and remove any damaged or diseased trees or branches that appear to pose a threat to campers.

It just goes to show, nothing is totally safe. If your time is up, your time is up.

Makes sense to chek overhead for obvious problems before you pitch your tent of hang your hammock. Especially in stormy conditions. I'd suggest extra caution in areas that have been drenched by storms in recent days. I've been told many times in covering storm damage stories how sogy ground can weaken the anchor of a tree's roots, leading to blow downs.

But trees falling on people in the woods does not happen so often that you should lie awake at night worrying the sky is going to fall on your tent.

Here is a link to the story (http://www.backcountry.net/arch/at/0406/msg00204.html) on that cub scout's death for anybody interested (it is actually to a message board post that copied and pasted it since our free public archives don't go back that far.

[Wise Old Owl]

If nobody else was there to hear them, would they still make a noise?

FYI
They frequenty fall over without any noise, except when the hit the ground. The creeking as they come over in the movies is a Foley Artist trick!

[Wise Old Owl]

In Pa. state parks, they do semi-annual surveys of trees in the camping areas and remove any damaged or diseased trees or branches that appear to pose a threat to campers.

It just goes to show, nothing is totally safe. If your time is up, your time is up.

Makes sense to chek overhead for obvious problems before you pitch your tent of hang your hammock. Especially in stormy conditions. I'd suggest extra caution in areas that have been drenched by storms in recent days. I've been told many times in covering storm damage stories how sogy ground can weaken the anchor of a tree's roots, leading to blow downs.




NO THEY DONT! they servey, servey, servey, - plop. (I have pictures)

[Hoop Time]

NO THEY DONT! they servey, servey, servey, - plop. (I have pictures)

Could be. I just was reporting what the park officals told me when that one fell on the cub scout.