Straight line winds do damage in Mount Pulaski

 

[April 10, 2020] 

Haley Maus was at her parent’s home in Mount Pulaski Wednesday evening around supper time when she literally thought something was coming through the house. Haley was in the kitchen at the back of the house and her mom and dad, Lynne and Randall Maus, were on the front porch with their 5 year-old granddaughter, Tinley, when all of a sudden the wind picked up.

“At first it was just a little bit of wind and I could see lightening in the distance,” said Haley, “and then all of a sudden I looked out the kitchen window, which is about 30 feet from the big tree, and I saw a bunch of black stuff hitting the house. I thought something was coming through the house. It ended up being the dirt and the wind hitting the house so hard when the tree fell. It shook the whole entire house.”

The 100-plus year old Catalpa tree was ginormous and the straight line wind that came through town caused the tree to fall on the brand new camper parked in the driveway. The Maus family had the camper custom made last year. They only had the opportunity to try it out a handful of times last camping season. Now according to Tinley, “We’re gonna let them build the same one.”

Randall Maus had just moved the camper out of winter storage and onto the driveway on Sunday. “I wish I had moved the boat there instead,” he said. “I could use a new boat. I already had a new camper.”

Luckily, the enormous tree fell in between the house and the garage and even though there is other minimal damage, no one was hurt.

“There is some damage to the garage and to the side of the house, where there is a bathroom, they will have to fix that,” said Haley. “They will probably have to put a new roof on.”

So just how big is this Catalpa tree? Well the Maus family has measured the tree, in terms of people. The tree is so big it took 6-7 adults to wrap around it, according to Haley. "And that was standing around the tree, with arms stretched out, from fingertip to fingertip, to completely go around it,” said Haley.

“I remember, it was six people,” chimed in 5 year-old Tinley.

The roots of the tree were simply huge, too, and took up a lot of space in the yard once uprooted. In addition, the straight wind took the power lines and wrapped them around the tree like Clark Griswold decorating a Christmas tree, with some unnecessary help from Cousin Eddie.

It was still quite the mangled mess as a tree trimming crew was working to clean up the fallen tree on Thursday afternoon.

As Randall Maus walked around the yard, he pointed out something interesting. “That limb hit the top of the camper and just blew the window seals out and the windows fell on the ground,” he said. “It just crushed the camper but didn’t break the camper windows.” The windows laid fully intact nearby.

He was very thankful no one got hurt and there was no major structural damage to the house.

Since the storm occurred quickly and in the daylight hours, several curious onlookers drove around town to check out the damage right after it happened.

Tinley stood in the driveway watching people drive by and as a parade of people passed the Maus home on Garden Street, admiring the downed tree and the crushed camper, the five-year-old yelled, “Camper for sale, camper for sale!”

Nothing like finding a little humor in the situation, especially through the eyes of a five-year-old.

Mount Pulaski resident Cheryl Poffenbarger summed it up perfectly as she went for an afternoon walk Thursday and stopped briefly to see the fallen tree. “Notice how it fell between the house and garage, that’s God.”

Other damage reported around town included several trees being uprooted and a trampoline or two tossed into the neighbor’s yards. Several homeowners also reported damaged siding and missing shingles.

The Mount Pulaski Hilltoppers Baseball Team lost their dugout in the storm. The home dugout at Bob Gasaway Field at Veteran’s Park was destroyed as a result of the high winds north of town. Concrete blocks and wooden and aluminum debris were blown toward the track and soccer field, keeping the actual ball diamond intact. A positive note even though there is no baseball going on at this time.

Fortunately, despite the damage all over town, no one was injured.

[Teena Lowery]