August 18, 2005

Derek Willis, the co-owner of Arbor Care, securing the tree that fell on Robert Mihalek’s home on Tower Court during last Thursday’s storm.

A hole in my roof, but I’m still lucky

By Robert Mihalek

I experienced last Thursday’s rainstorm in several ways: as a worried home owner whose house was damaged and a grateful community member who experienced the kindness of neighbors and the extraordinary work of a tree company and the Village crew.

It was this kindness and help from our neighbors, Arbor Care and the Village that made what could have been a terrible situation better.

That’s because during last Thursday’s rainstorm ferocious winds, ping-pong-ball-sized hail and pounding rain battled a large, lovely ash tree right behind our house on Tower Court.

A large tree limb snapped from the trunk and fell toward our house, stretching across our roof, a mess of leaves and smaller branches covering half our home and part of the garage. A branch pierced the roof, leaving a hole through which water rushed and damaged our kitchen ceiling. Fortunately, the tree was suspended in the air by several electric lines, which run over the house, sparing our home from serious damage. It could have been a lot worse.

The bizarre thing is that we weren’t home to experience the driving rains and the lightshow, and watch the tree slowly succumb to the violent, unforgiving wind. My wife, Amy Holbrook, and I had left Yellow Springs to run errands and get dinner. If it rained in Dayton, it was only a drizzle, hardly the fierce storm that Yellow Springs and a few other Miami Valley communities experienced. We had no idea that the village had been hit by a storm and that a massive tree limb had hit our house.

What a sight we saw when we arrived home. There was this large limb, at least 75 feet long, well over 60 inches in diameter at its thickest point and an estimated 2,000 pounds, hanging above our one-story home like the Sword of Damocles. Derek Willis, who, with his wife, Denyelle, owns the tree service company Arbor Care, was hanging over the limb, working in the dark to secure the tree.

We were lucky: because the tree had fallen into the electric lines, Arbor Care had been called out to the house by the Village to remove the limb from the lines. If not for the actions of Arbor Care and the Village crew, gravity would have taken over, the wires holding up the limb would have given way, and the tree would have fallen into our house.

Once Arbor Care and the Village crew members on the scene came up with a plan, they took decisive, yet careful, steps to get the tree down off the lines. Village employee Kent Harding skillfully controlled a digger derrick that he used to grab the limb and keep it from crashing down. Another employee, Dave Conley, deftly operated a cherry picker, from which Derek Willis was able to cut off many of the tree’s limbs. (Other employees who came by the house included Michael Applin, the electricity supervisor; Harold Hamilton, the streets supervisor; and crew members Jane King and Dan Mayenschein. The next day, Applin, Kelley Fox and Joel Crandall returned to remove another branch that fell onto another power line and a different part of my house.)

From various vantage points around the yard, I watched the folks from Arbor Care and the Village work as a finely synchronized team. Over the din of the generator running four floodlights that illuminated the site, they would discuss almost each move of the cherry picker or digger derrick or which limb to cut down. Sometimes, they didn’t even need to talk, instead using hand signals to direct their next steps. Conley would move the cherry picker’s bucket over the branches, giving Willis the right angle to remove limbs. Denyelle Willis and another Arbor Care employee, Keith Brooks, would use strong ropes to lower the branches to the ground, ensuring that no further damage was done to the house or garage.

It’s an understatement to say that the conditions were less than ideal, but Arbor Care and the Village crew were patient and professional. Though they had the floodlights, it was still dark, as well as hot and humid — and the night kept getting later and later. They worked for more than five hours at my house, finally leaving after 2 a.m.

But they weren’t done for the night. They went elsewhere to take care of more problems in town.

Last Thursday, we were lucky in other ways. Because we weren’t home when the storm knocked over the tree limb, our neighbors Will Davis and Steve Rumbaugh checked on our pets and house, cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. Other neighbors left us flowers and beer.

Sometimes you forget how lucky you are to live in a place like Yellow Springs. Last week, Amy and I were reminded what it’s like to live in a community where people care for one another.