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I was at a Seattle beach/park that had trees across the back half of the area, for a shady picnic area. There was a mom sitting in the treed area with her infant. Suddenly, there was a loud noise, a big branch above her cracked and fell. Her immediate instinct was to curl up on the ground over her baby, to protect it, so the branch hit her back or torso. Everyone saw it, everyone went running toward her. It turned out she was OK, and so was the baby.
The next time I went to that park, a couple of trees had been completely removed; not trimmed, but cut down completely. I don't know--maybe these Parks Departments need more or better arborists, or maybe these kinds of things really can't be predicted.
In 1984, a guy went jogging during a storm with high winds. He was passing through an affluent area when an oak tree fell on him, rendering him a paraplegic. He sued. The settlement was for $10 million.
Savannah is famous for the old live oaks that are centuries old. In some areas, huge branches make canopies over the road. More than once, branches have fallen and killed or injured people. One lady lost a leg when a tree branch fell on her car, and she got $9M from the city.
This actually happens a lot. I know a man who had just beaten an aggressive form of cancer, got great news at the doctors office. 2 days later walking down a street in the evening with his wife and a huge branch fell on him killing him immediately.
This general sort of thing happens all the time in Hawaii, but it usually just damages cars, not people. The palm trees are constantly shedding palm fronds, and those things can weigh as much as 50 or 50 pounds (although they're usually not that heavy.) That's like having a 2x6 fall onto your car from 3 stories up, and since most people prefer to park in the shade, you can imagine how often cars get smacked. I remember seeing more than one nice rental care parked near a beach with a big crease in the hood or roof, and a palm branch next to it. How'd you like to walk back to your car and find that?
And that's not to mention the coconuts themselves - imagine a small bowling ball falling out of a tree, and consider how much damage that can do. I remember one family that came on vacation, and the mother was sitting on the beach with her baby, in the shade of a palm tree. A coconut fell into the baby's whatever-you-call-those-baby-baskets, and killed it. Can you imagine how the mother felt? But you can't blame her, because what are you supposed to do? Never go under a tree the whole time you're in Hawaii? When it's time for one of those things to fall, it's time, and that's that.
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