>>i>>A number of trees have fallen throughout the Bay Area. Some crushed cars and others houses. Redwoods are my favorite trees. They have such a shallow root ball that a good wind with wet soil can cause them to fall. A friend in Palo Alto had a neighbor who lost a Redwood and it blocked the entire street. It took a large crew to remove it.
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>I love redwoods too. I owned a house in Napa for three years and the main reason I wanted to buy it was that it had twelve huge redwoods in the back yard. What's amazing about this is that this house wasn't out in the boonies somewhere, it was right in town, on Main Street. They have obviously survived many storms ... maybe because there were a lot of them on a small lot, they hold each other up.
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>~~Bonnie
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Redwood trees tend to grow in close groups. Sometimes what appears to be many trees actually is one tree which has grown from a common root ball. By growing close together they protect each other and act as wind breaks.

When President Reagan allowed Redwood trees near Eureka to be cut down, he neglected basic facts. He had the loggers cut almost to hiway 101 on both sides and clear cut the rest. There was a row of trees one tree deep along the hiway. Reagan made a comment, "Who cares about a few Redwoods?" The next storm downed the remaining Redwoods in that area.

I have been to all the major Redwood forests, hiking, taking pictures and all that. It is a great place to be on a hot day! Have you ever taken the Skunk Train between Fort Bragg and Willits? Very interesting and educational! The upper branches of the coastal Redwoods have specially designed (by mother nature) leaves that capture fog. Each tree captures an average of 350 gallons of water a day from the fog.

As you know the Redwood tree is basically fire and insect proof. Too bad it is not “man proof”! :)







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>>As usual in our area Santa Cruz and the surrounding area had their issues. Trees across hiway 17 and mud slides closed it for several hours. Marin county had 101 closed for about 6 hours, and flooding here and there.
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>>I have seen worse storms than this series. This one (series of three back to back) did get our attention.
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>>>I was talking to my son yesterday ... he lives in Napa. He was going on and on about the wind and the rain. He was worried about the big trees in his backyard (he has a few big redwoods). He was also worried about flooding ... sometimes I wonder if that kid is actually mine ... he lives up high, nowhere near any creeks, streams or the Napa River. No reason to worry about *his* house flooding.
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>>>However, the Napa River definitely floods!!! ... I've lived close by to some of the flood-prone areas myself, but thankfully was never affected.
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>>>I haven't heard from him today though, so I guess I'll have to check the news to see if Napa got hit bad or not.
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>>>~~Bonnie
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>>>>Yesterday was a nice day except for a bit of rain and wind. The wind was peaking from 68 to 107 mph depending upon where you live. The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was closed for six hours due to five big rig rollovers and 80 mph winds. 1 million people lost power. Other than that it was a nice day.