Couple Finds Good Humor After Tree Rips Through Roof

Merrimack residents Lorrieann and Toby Russell needed a new roof. They just didn't need the tree that fell on their house Monday night to force them into it.

Lorrieann on Tuesday morning posted a handful of photos to Merrimack Patch's Hurricane Sandy photo gallery, of the 80-foot oak tree that crashed through the roof of her Valleyview Drive home on Monday.

She also posted more than 100 interior and exterior shots, to her insurance claim on All State's website, she said as she stood outside her home snapping more photos of the crew working busily to remove the mighty oak.

All in all, the couple was taking the whole thing in stride Tuesday, with good humor and a sense of relief that it wasn't worse and that no one was hurt.

“I'm just looking forward to not raking as much next fall,” Toby said. “That was a very, very productive tree.”

“That oak tree, that is the last tree we ever expected to come down,” Lorrieann said with a chuckle, pointing to a large pine tree leaning heavily to the left. “That pine tree actually was the one that had us concerned.”

But as it turns out, the oak tree, which was in large part made of beautiful, sturdy wood, was a big mess at its base. The roots, visible where the tree pulled out of the ground, were quite rotted, Lorrieann said.

The ironic part of the whole thing, Lorrieann said, is that they were more prepared than ever to endure several days without power – a commodity that never did go out.

“We were so prepared for this this year,” Lorrieann said. “Last year (during Snowtober) we were a week without power. The lights flickered a few times here and there and we'd keep thinking 'Well, this is it,' but we never did lose power.”

They did, however, end up shutting off power to most of their kitchen following the crushing blow, which pushed the roof's joists through the kitchen ceiling.

“We shut off electricity that powered the ceiling light, which was like a waterfall with water running right over the light bulbs,” Toby said.

Luckily for the Russells, their refrigerator is on separate breaker, so they were spared a loss of food.

Lorrieann said it was just before 8 p.m. when one of those roaring, whooshing winds kicked up. Then came the thud. In their 12 years living in Merrimack, they've had trees fall in the yard, but this was the first one to meet their house.

The Russells were in the bedroom on the far left side of the house when it happened, and Lorrieann said it sounded like something had fallen in the driveway just outside. So they went to the garage with flashlights and were looking all around but didn't see anything.

“Then I move the flashlight up and it caught the branches overhead,” Lorrieann said.

The tree had fallen from the right side of the house, which took the brunt of the impact, but the very large tree's branches came clear across the opposite side of the 40-foot wide home.

Lorrieann said she was on the phone with their home insurance provider, All State, by 8 p.m. and they'd started a claim for her before she went to bed. Tuesday morning the couple woke up and got to work.

They contacted a general contractor and a tree removal service and Lorrieann began uploading photos to the insurance claim, hoping to help speed the process along.

Trees Company LLC was making quick work of the massive project, Lorrieann said. A large crane and a chipper adorned the couple's front yard and a man with a chainsaw was on the roof hooking it to the tree and cutting the trunk into manageable chunks to lower to the crew on the ground.

Toby said the tree was expected to be removed by the end of the day, though the roof repair and interior damage – which includes at the very least a lot of repair in the kitchen and addressing water that ran between the walls into the basement – will take longer.

“We needed a new roof,” Lorrieann said, “but we weren't planning to do it this way.”

In light of what happened, the Russells were in good spirits Tuesday.

“It's a great adventure. If you can't laugh at it, what can you do?” Lorrieann asked shortly before pulling up a lawn chair next to her husband to watch the crew work on a comfortable, and at times downright sunny, fall afternoon.