Early Spring Storms Have Challenged Homeowners

Dot Prater of Lilburn found this month's violent storms unnerving, with trees collapsed on neighbors' homes immediately left and right, but not hers.

"I feel blessed to have not had any damage at all," said the 20-year homeowner on Maple Drive near Five Forks Trickum Road. "All this destruction is incredible, quite disturbing actually."

Storms that blew down trees and knocked out power to hundreds of residents a few weeks ago are especially treacherous in cities like Lilburn, known for older, large-lotted subdivisions enshrouded by enormous, mature trees. Those trees potentially toppling onto homes and cars during storms is something people think little about, until it happens to them.

Two weeks ago, trees landed on the homes of Bobby and Valerie Johnson and Anthony and Glenda Beardsworth, neighbors on either side of Prater's 41-year old, 1,900-square foot home on a half-acre. Welcome shade for the cul de sac homes, the enormously top-heavy trees are precariously near when threatening weather comes.

"It's kind of a nice feature you can't see your neighbor in the summer," Bobby Johnson said. "But there's both good and bad to that."

Trees crushing homes and cars happens in metro Atlanta more than rarely, particularly in violent storms of early spring. Already, in just the initial weeks of the season, several rounds of storms have swept through the area, leaving the area's arborists quite busy. Weather experts say we haven't even hit the peak of the severe-storm season yet.

Few have forgotten what once happened seasons ago to Lilburn resident Alfredo Perez, around the corner on Five Forks, just north of Lake Lucerne. Among an estimated dozen homes damaged by a single storm, his had a fallen tree slice completely through to its foundation. Fortunately, four family members, including 3-year-old daughter Mary, were uninjured.

"It hit everywhere except for where somebody was at," Perez had told media then. "So it turned out pretty good."

Up Maple Drive, Chuck Taylor, who sought his 43-year-old, 1,700-square foot ranch in part for its mature landscape, had two pines and a sweet gum tree removed as precaution within two weeks of moving in. He said it cost about $2,000, but considered it worth it to eliminate potential problems.

"A lot of people enjoy having the green space," he said of the mature landscape. "The large trees sort of give you a little less of a feel of a subdivision."

Arborists have been understandably busy amid stormy initial weeks of spring. Jason Chapman, owner of Real Tree Service in Lilburn, said this has been one of his most frenzied months in two and half years of business. He said priorities are first addressing trees on homes and cars, then those on fences, then others simply needing removal.

"We've been through two springs now, but this is by far as busy as we've been," he said. "We're a month backed up."

Chapman advised pruning overgrown trees to make them less top heavy and allow wind to blow through and between them. That way, they're less likely to uproot. As a precaution, he considers an arborist's assessment as important as home inspection prior to buying.

Luckily, old growth trees are one of those things that can be dealt with," he said. "You wouldn't buy a house with rotted framing if you weren't expecting to fix it."

Bill Harkelroad, operations manager of Lilburn's , provided other tips to keeping trees trees off homes and cars. He advised inspecting trees annually for signs of rot at the root ball, which would cause a tree to uproot more easily in wind. He said another thing to look for is decay of limbs, which easily could snap. He advised special attention to trees near power lines.

"We're running six and seven days a week, which is abnormal," he said. "It does pick up in the spring, but not usually to this extent.

"We've been picking trees off houses from Newnan to Gwinnett Mall and everywhere in between."