Trees falling over create dangers, headaches to Long Beach residents * Long Beach Post News - Long Beach Post

Keith Tunison and Greg Vaccaro who reside within the Los Cerritos area, had been concerned over the safety of an tree which was over 60-feet tall.

The night of Tuesday, all hell broke loose.

They were watching television while they were watching TV when they heard a noise Tunison was comparing to the beginning the rumbling of an earthquake.

It was followed by a screech followed by “just an enormous “whump! ‘” he said. “The instant I heard that sound I told him”Bye tree. ‘”

On Wednesday, a city-hired firm’s workers were chainsawing at the remaining pieces of the tree Some of them were on the sidewalk, and the Vaccaro cleaned up debris from his front walkway. The eucalyptus had torn down the overhangs around on the outside of the 1950s house and also smashed a neighbor’s vehicle.

More than 60 feet of eucalyptus fell on Tuesday 17 January. 17 2023, causing damage to the car and home along Pine Avenue in Los Cerritos. Photo by Keith Tunison

Nearly 2,800 of Long beach’s 1,40,000 trees on the streets are Eucalyptus according to the data that was collected and released for 2020 by Los Angeles Times’ Matt Stiles. It’s not just eucalyptus that is that can fall over. Last year, at Whaley Park, a large carob tree limb fell upon the family of a child which was not hurt, though it could feel like that to the residents.

In the last week an earlier this week Reddit user shared a picture of a fallen eucalyptus tree on North Virginia Road and said five species of the plant have fallen onto the street over the past two years. The following day, the cut-off stump of one remained in the spot where it fell, with a shattered sidewalk brick as well as a section of curb still wrapped within its root.

“Since the beginning of the severe weather that has swept through the region in the area, public works officials at the (Long Beach) Department of Public Works received requests for services to remove fallen palm fronds, and has responded to more than 50 fallen tree or tree branches,” spokeswoman Joy Contreras stated in an email message.

The arborist Don Hodel, an emeritus expert in landscape and environmental horticulture for the University of California, said it’s not easy to tell if the eucalyptus tree is more likely to fail or fall than other species. But the trees that fail share a few characteristics that they share.

Planting trees in areas that are not suitable could not obtain enough nutrients or water that they are unable to absorb, and consequently become weak and become dead. Large trees with wide spread roots might not form an adequate support system for a parkway that is three feet wide or city workers could trim the roots when they begin lifting on the pavement, Hodel said.

Cutbacks in watering that are mandated during droughts can harm trees, however sudden rains don’t always aid.

When you have storms such as the ones which struck California in the last few days, “excessively wet soil loses the ability to hold trees in place and the wind arrives and pushes them around,” Hodel said.

The windy, wet weather has ended for now however, some residents are watching the trees that line their streets.

Sandy Wells, who lives within a short distance of Tunison and Vacarro was there to capture photos of the scene in their backyard to show her friend who has a tree leaning. Wells also has an tree on her front lawn.

“I’m planning to go along my street and check out my trees,” she said. “This is what makes me anxious.”

Vaccaro and Tunison said they’d made contact with the city regarding their tree prior to it falling but did not get any response however, the city did provide a contractor cutting up its remains on Wednesday.

Tunison admitted that he’s disappointed to see the huge Eucalyptus disappearing. It was his home as well as habitat for hawks, falcons as well as other wildlife. But he’s using it as an opportunity to start afresh.

“I’ll finally have my xeriscape yard,” he declared.