Myers Park homeowner on tree crashing down: 'Grateful no one was out'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Part of a major Myers Park road was closed Monday as crews worked to prevent a second tree from falling after a massive tree crashed down earlier in the day, blocking the roadway.

An enormous tree fell before dawn and shut down the westbound lanes of Queens Road West during the morning rush.

Crews were called in, and cut up and cleared the debris before noon.

Some of the tree’s branches got caught in a second tree, which crews had to remove before it fell.

Worried neighbors said they were relieved that no one was walking or driving by when the tree fell because no one could have survived the weight of it.

"I'm grateful no one was out that time of day and hit by the tree. It's incredibly massive," homeowner Anne Kennedy said.

Kennedy owns the home that the tree would've crushed if it fell the other way.

"Any direction it would've fallen was going to be devastating," Kennedy said.

The tree, which was estimated to be more than 100 years old, weighed thousands of pounds.

"Most of the trees in the front yard we grew up climbing in and climbing over the walls and they just have great history," Kennedy said.

"It's really sad to see them come down like this, but it was massive," neighbor Lindsey Goins said.

Most of the trees in Myers Park were planted when the neighborhood was developed in 1917.

Another inch of rain is expected Wednesday and that water adds tremendous weight to the roots of the very old trees.

In the past five years, Charlotte arborist Tim Porter said the number of falling trees has increased 200 percent.

"We've really seen the numbers just skyrocket," Porter said.

Originally, the city was hoping to plant over 500,000 trees by the year 2050.

That number may need to be higher to keep the air clean as the city continues to grow.

The tree canopy over Charlotte is about 47 percent. Officials would like that to be 50 percent but to get there, they would need more available space to plant the trees.

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