Falling tree hits Hauser Lake home
HAUSER LAKE — Lynn Peterson was enjoying a quiet Saturday night at home when she heard something.
Then, the house shook.
“The cat and I got real scared,” Peterson said.
Her house went dark as the power flicked out.
Peterson called a granddaughter who lives across the lake.
“Do you have power?”
“Yes. Don’t you?” came the response.
Peterson, a 50-year Hauser Lake resident, said she had never felt anything quite like what she experienced. It was like a great power had come and gone.
“My house rattled," she said.
Later, Peterson walked upstairs and looked out the backdoor. She couldn’t go anywhere even if she wanted to. A section of a tree and branches filled her yard earlier that day.
She looked next door and saw a tall pine tree that had long been rooted in the next-door yard had been ripped up and crashed into her neighbor's roof toward a corner of the home.
It sliced through a front wall and window, into the brick chimney and pushed out part of a side wall before coming to a rest, narrowly missing Peterson’s home.
As of Monday, Peterson’s home was still without electricity, and she was fielding insurance calls.
Nolan Gaul of Nolan’s Family Tree Service was cleaning up Peterson’s backyard Monday.
He estimated the tree was about 120-feet tall. He expected it to take a few days to clear the tree from both properties.
A strong but short storm hit Hauser Lake late Saturday. It churned up waves and caused other, less extensive damage.
Gaul referred to what rolled in as a “microburst.”
“That’s my best guess,” he said.
According to the National Weather Service, a microburst is “a downdraft in a thunderstorm that can cause strong winds and damage."
Peterson said it was calm before the storm.
“It just went through like a whirling and then it was over,” she said.
The owners of the home were not home when The Press went to the site and could not be reached for comment.
Nolan Gaul of Nolan's Family Tree Service clears parts of a tree from a Hauser Lake home on Monday.