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CHARLOTTE, NC – “I could see the tree and I could see the sky in my kitchen. It just demolished it,” says West Charlotte resident Donna Dixon.
Dixon was laying on her sofa when a tree came crashing into her house.
“I thought, thank God it didn’t fall on me, that’s what I thought, I’m really lucky, I’m a blessed woman,” she says.
Dixon.. not the only fortunate one today.
A family escaped a tree falling on a home on Glenrock Drive in Southwest Charlotte.
While crews haven’t pinpointed an exact cause.. winter weather is likely to blame.
“You can have trees that wind up being, weakened, essentially,” says arborist Brandon Hogan.
Hogan says you can expect falling trees after bad weather.
“You can have defects in the tree that end up being magnified. Cracks, or dead limbs wind up falling,” he says.
He adds, especially during the winter – it can be hard to tell if trees around your house may in bad shape.
But there are some things you can watch for.
Hogan says mushrooms growing around the base can indicate decay, while an unevenly shaped tree can also be a problem.
And if you spot unusual changes it might be a good idea to get the tree checked.
“You know just work on the front end, you can help reduce the chance that you’re going to have issues down the road,” he says.
