Near Miss (Or Near Hit) (1 Viewer)

[John Dirk]

We woke up to find this in our backyard after a night of severe thunderstorms here in north GA. It was a near miss or, if you're a George Carlin fan like me, "a near hit because a collision is a near miss."

I've heard about and seen the power of lightening before but I've never experienced it quite like this, up close and personal. The trees narrowly missed our main deck and the master bedroom is just a few feet outside of the picture. I'm happy to be alive everyday but especially this one. You guys are all welcome to bring your chainsaws on over to help me get rid of this mess.

 

[ChristopherG]

That was pretty close alright - glad to see that it missed your deck - did it hit anything else>?

 

[John Dirk]

That was pretty close alright - glad to see that it missed your deck - did it hit anything else>?

Amazingly it did not. My backyard swing was also mercifully spared.

 

[TravisR]

Close call.

Back when Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast, I moved my car from under a tree with the idea that this way no branches would break off and fall on my car. I woke up in the morning and an entirely different tree had torn out of the ground (something that I didn't even consider possible since I was probably 100 miles from where the storm was predicted to do the most damage) and had fallen in front of where I had moved the car just barely missing it. A few branches were touching the grill of the car but I missed real damage by about a foot.

 

[John Dirk]

Close call.

Back when Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast, I moved my car from under a tree with the idea that this way no branches would break off and fall on my car. I woke up in the morning and an entirely different tree had torn out of the ground (something that I didn't even consider possible since I was probably 100 miles from where the storm was predicted to do the most damage) and had fallen in front of where I had moved the car just barely missing it. A few branches were touching the grill of the car but I missed real damage by about a foot.

WOW! Now that's a story. I can't even imagine the force it would take to uproot a tree. Nature is truly amazing and clearly in charge.

Glad your car was spared.

 

[DaveF]

Wow! Glad it was a miss!

 

[Jeffrey D]

Christmas Day 2017. I was between jobs, so I went to visit my cousin who lives in Montclair NJ. I’m watching A Christmas Story with my cousin’s family, and I hear a ruckus outside. I opened the living room curtain, and I see a tree limb has fallen on a Mazda SUV that was parked in the driveway of a house directly across the street from us. Not a near miss, and not the ideal Christmas present for that family who wasn’t home at the time. The car was totaled.

 

[John Dirk]

Christmas Day 2017. I was between jobs, so I went to visit my cousin who lives in Montclair NJ. I’m watching A Christmas Story with my cousin’s family, and I hear a ruckus outside. I opened the living room curtain, and I see a tree limb has fallen on a Mazda SUV that was parked in the driveway of a house directly across the street from us. Not a near miss, and not the ideal Christmas present for that family who wasn’t home at the time. The car was totaled.

Sad indeed. Trees are so much larger fallen than they appear standing. I have no doubt the entire rear of my home would have been demolished had this one veered maybe 10 ft inwards. I count it as yet another example of God's mercy.

 

[JohnRice]

John, was it a lightning strike which did that?

 

[John Dirk]

John, was it a lightning strike which did that?

Yep.

 

[theJman]

Back when Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast, I moved my car from under a tree with the idea that this way no branches would break off and fall on my car. A few branches were touching the grill of the car but I missed real damage by about a foot.

Something similar happened to me during Sandy. I live in an established neighborhood so there are a lot of 50+ year old trees around here, including my own. Knowing the direction of the wind I backed my truck further down the driveway than where I normally park to try and find a clear spot between where my tree and my neighbors might fall if that were to happen. Neither did but both shed huge branches, at least a foot in diameter. The one from my tree landed (mostly) in front of my truck while my neighbors was behind it. His limb ripped a gutter from my house and cause some minor shingle damage while mine put a few scratches on the hood, but that's all. Had my truck been a foot or two in either direction it could have been a whole lot worse.

Unfortunately I can't find any of the pictures I took for insurance but here's one of when I sold the truck (it's 12 years old and 135k miles):

The tree in the background is my neighbors, one of those monster limbs jutting up is what what ripped off. During Sandy the truck was about 3-4 further back then it is in this picture.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Glad there wasn't much damage, John. It could have been a lot worse.

My "close call" story isn't from a storm, but from a small four passenger airplane that crashed into our condo complex in South Carolina about 20 years ago. Friends from Raleigh were visiting with us, and my wife took their son (a toddler then, now a graduate student at Harvard) down to the pond to feed the ducks. We were sitting in our condo chatting, when we heard this very loud BANG, and then alarms started going off. We were not sure what was happening, until several minutes later when my wife returned to our condo carrying our friends' son, and she was very shaken.

The airplane had left the small airport near our complex, headed out over the ocean and then encountered some issue. The pilot tried to get back, but couldn't make it and nose dived the plane over the tower condo units right on the beach and crashed in the small walking area between those towers and our building. The plane crashed about 75 yards from where my wife and friends son were standing. Another gentleman walking his dog in the area was hit with shrapnel and later passed away from his injuries. I took my wife back down to the crash site, so she could provide her name as a witness if it was needed. Emergency crew were removing the charred remains of the passengers when we arrived back at the site.

If the pilot had not crashed the plane at that exact spot, he most likely would have crashed right into our building. We consider ourselves very fortunate that all of us -- my wife and friends son at the crash site, plus the rest of us in the building, emerged unscathed.

 

[John Dirk]

Glad there wasn't much damage, John. It could have been a lot worse.

My "close call" story isn't from a storm, but from a small four passenger airplane that crashed into our condo complex in South Carolina about 20 years ago. Friends from Raleigh were visiting with us, and my wife took their son (a toddler then, now a graduate student at Harvard) down to the pond to feed the ducks. We were sitting in our condo chatting, when we heard this very loud BANG, and then alarms started going off. We were not sure what was happening, until several minutes later when my wife returned to our condo carrying our friends' son, and she was very shaken.

The airplane had left the small airport near our complex, headed out over the ocean and then encountered some issue. The pilot tried to get back, but couldn't make it and nose dived the plane over the tower condo units right on the beach and crashed in the small walking area between those towers and our building. The plane crashed about 75 yards from where my wife and friends son were standing. Another gentleman walking his dog in the area was hit with shrapnel and later passed away from his injuries. I took my wife back down to the crash site, so she could provide her name as a witness if it was needed. Emergency crew were removing the charred remains of the passengers when we arrived back at the site.

If the pilot had not crashed the plane at that exact spot, he most likely would have crashed right into our building. We consider ourselves very fortunate that all of us -- my wife and friends son at the crash site, plus the rest of us in the building, emerged unscathed.

What an experience, Scott! I'm sure surviving that gave everyone involved a new perspective on life and how precious it is. Very sad for those who were not as fortunate, regardless of how much time has passed.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

What an experience, Scott! I'm sure surviving that gave everyone involved a new perspective on life and how precious it is. Very sad for those who were not as fortunate, regardless of how much time has passed.

Yes, it was quite a sobering experience. To make matters more stressful, we actually had to get on a plane that evening to head back home to Michigan.