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Photograph of one downed tree in Central Park by Bebeto Matthews/AP
Tuesday's night sudden storm damaged numerous trees, from the Upper West Side to Central Park and into Harlem and the Bronx. The devastation was especially stark in Central Park, where Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe lamented to the NY Times, "It created more damage than I’ve seen in 30 years of working in the parks."
He added to the Daily News, "It looks like someone opened up with artillery fire, something you'd see in a war zone... Trees are shredded, some snapped in half 30 to 40 feet up; other trees are just completely uprooted...The landscape has changed forever." Even one parkgoer's dog was startled: Jeff Janus said of his dog Harry, "He knew that things were not in their right places. Trees are not supposed to be on the ground, and branches should not be all over the place and he was very, visibly perturbed."
Workers in Central Park were using chain saw to remove hanging branches from damaged trees; one told the Post, "The hangers can fall at any time. That's the real concern. Some are 15 inches wide and 15 feet long. If it fell on someone, they'd be a pancake."
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Mother nature is not always as environmentally friendly or green as you might think.
What a bizarre understanding of the natural world you must have to twist a perfectly normal naturally-occurring event into some sort of slam against environmental responsibility. As Wolfgang Pauli famously said "That's not right. It's not even wrong."
Hahah
As if Benepe has ever been to a war zone.
lol, right? the nerve these bureaucrats have.
It's survival of the fittest and these trees clearly did not make the cut! This happens all the time in real parks/the real woods.
Yeah, I used to see some serious tree carnage along the park drive in Forest Park after storms less intense than the one Tuesday night, but that's not Central Park so nobody really cares.
or because it's the worst storm damage that the main park in the city has sustained in 30 years - that couldn't possibly be why it's a local interest story
I never disputed why the Central Park damage is a local interest story so why don't you unclench, kay?
Might be a really dumb question but would this summer's near record breaking rainfall have anything to do with the trees being more fragile? Like if the trunks or branches were more saturated with water would that weaken the ability of the wood to withstand high winds? Pulling this out of my butt obviously, but curious if this wet summer (and recent humidity and heatwave) had any impact.
Yes, but more likely it's a result of fungus (especially prolific in cool, wet summers) weakening the structural integrity of the trees (as opposed to the water itself making the branches "soggy").
So yes, a cool, wet summer followed by high winds can certainly cause a larger than average instance of trees broken. If there's an ice storm this winter, it'll be especially bad.
Nice, thanks for the info.
Or it could have just been the 70 to 80 mile an hour winds..... those are hurricane/tornado level winds. Have you seen the destruction those produce? Lets stop reading into it more then it is; VERY strong winds felled trees.
Are we ready to live in a post-summer-thunderstorm world?
Global warming card to be played in 3...2...1...
goddamn global warming, eh longacre?
ugh, nature is so annoyingly unruly. will one of you plebes put those trees back where they belong before you really upset my pooch?
Cut down all those fucking trees and sell Central Park for Condos to fix the city's budget problems.
Yeah, that's what the city needs, more condo projects. What a stupid thing to say.
god calls this piece "this is your genitals on pam anderson"
It is kind of upsetting when there's a tree that you've watched change color every fall and bloom every spring for years and you suddenly find it dead on the ground. That storm was 80 mph winds and very brief. Imagine if this town ever got hit with a real hurricane.
It happened twice in Buffalo and not only did the area lose thousands of grand old trees, they replanted with shitty maples :(
"Even one parkgoer's dog was startled: Jeff Janus said of his dog Harry, "He knew that things were not in their right places. Trees are not supposed to be on the ground, and branches should not be all over the place and he was very, visibly perturbed."
HAHAH. crazy talk