Storm-Ravaged Central Park Upsets Many

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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By Jen Chung in News on August 20, 2009 11:44 AM

Comments [rss]

awesomo2001

"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

JenChungsBaby

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.

NannyState

It happened twice in Buffalo and not only did the area lose thousands of grand old trees, they replanted with shitty maples :(

foureyesmonster

god calls this piece "this is your genitals on pam anderson"

silver

Cut down all those fucking trees and sell Central Park for Condos to fix the city's budget problems.

T

Yeah, that's what the city needs, more condo projects. What a stupid thing to say.

hotstepper

ugh, nature is so annoyingly unruly. will one of you plebes put those trees back where they belong before you really upset my pooch?

valeriob

goddamn global warming, eh longacre?

longacre

Global warming card to be played in 3...2...1...

buttface

Are we ready to live in a post-summer-thunderstorm world?

jibbly

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.

grizzzly

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.

BKjmu22

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.

jibbly

Nice, thanks for the info.

blondeinthecity

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.

pigeon

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.

Outter Burrougher

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

pigeon

I never disputed why the Central Park damage is a local interest story so why don't you unclench, kay?

kaykayess

As if Benepe has ever been to a war zone.

JLRodP

lol, right? the nerve these bureaucrats have.

ides_of_march

Mother nature is not always as environmentally friendly or green as you might think.

dr zippy

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."