NEWBURYPORT — A local man is lucky to be alive after a freak squall blew branches from a 100-foot pine tree onto his car yesterday afternoon.
"It's a good thing he wasn't going fast, or the branches would've gone right through his windshield," said officer Donald Hall, who responded to the scene.
Franklin Street resident Jim Hartford had been jogging with his two collies in Maudslay State Park just before 2 yesterday afternoon, and was driving home when a snow squall caused a whiteout on Pine Hill Road. Hartford said he was driving slowly because of the blinding snow and 40-mph gusts of wind.
Shortly past the junction of Pine Hill and Curzon Mill roads, his caution paid off.
"All of a sudden, branches started falling down," Hartford said.
Two large branches, each at least a foot in diameter, were blown off a 100-foot tall pine tree and crashed onto the front of Hartford's Honda CRV. The crash was audible near Whitcomb Lane, where Amesbury resident Matt Foley was visiting his parents.
"This wind came out of nowhere, and then we heard a loud thump," Foley said.
Although the branches dented and banged up his car, coming to rest in an X over the hood, Hartford and his dogs were unhurt. He took the dogs out of the car, and when Hall arrived at the scene, he placed them in the back of the cruiser to keep warm.
"I didn't get hurt at all, I was very fortunate," Hartford said.
The tree branches also landed on power wires across the road from the pine, stretching the wires to near breaking point. National Grid shut off power to the house nearest the wires so workers could untangle them from the branches.
Hall said the fallen branches were rotting to begin with, but that pine trees in general are susceptible to wind damage.
"Pine gives in extreme wind conditions," he said.
DPW workers brought in a wood chipper to destroy the branches, and police blocked off Pine Hill Street in both directions for about an hour while they and National Grid workers repaired the damage.
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