WATCH: So why did so many trees come down during yesterday’s windstorm? Many assume it may have been the dry weather we’ve been having, weakening the roots. But as Grace Ke reports, arborists saying it also had a lot to do with the timing.
VANCOUVER — Homeowners like Coquitlam’s Steve Roswell spent Sunday watching crews clean-up the aftermath of fierce windstorm that blasted Metro Vancouver and the Lower Mainland winds gusting 80 km/h and higher.
Saturday’s storm snapped and toppled trees throughout region — damaging homes and vehicles, falling on power lines and blocking roads.
READ MORE: Was your car damaged in the B.C. windstorm? Here’s what you need to know.
A broken cedar tree outside Roswell’s home hung perilously over his garage until a crew arrived Sunday afternoon.
“I did get up a couple of times during the night to check up on the three to make sure it didn’t come down any further,” Roswell told Global News.
Roswell’s home is but one of many where the wind knocked over or broke trees.
It’s a situation that arborist Mike McLellan, of the tree service company Tree People, said was made worse by the hot and dry conditions the region has endured this summer — the ninth driest since record keeping began in 1896.
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“Both the trunks and the roots are going to be affected by the weather,” he said. “If the soil is dry, they’re not going to get as much food and moisture.”
WATCH: Falling trees were a major problem on the North Shore as well. Catherine Urquhart reports.
The timing of the storm didn’t help either, he said, adding this was the kind of storm southwestern B.C. usually experiences in winter.
“The trees being affected, all the deciduous trees that still have their leaves on, generally when we get winds of this nature… the leaves are gone and off the trees, so there is no resistance to the wind.”
He described the leaf-covered trees as acting like sails, catching the wind and causing trees to sway so much that pressure is put on the root system.
“As opposed to November, December when the wind is blowing through them,” he said.
McLellan said it’s the worst destruction he has seen since the December 2006 storm that ripped up thousands of trees — including some that were more than 100 years old.
PHOTOS: Largest South Coast storm in a decade causes mass power outages
– With files from Grace Ke
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