Last Summer, lighting struck this Post Oak tree on my property. The tree was about 40' tall with about an 18" diameter trunk. The bottom two thirds of the trunk literally exploded, scattering chunks of bark up to 150' away, and shards of wood the size of baseball bats were found up to 100' away. The top of the tree flipped over, landing the canopy onto the remnants of the trunk.
I've seen other trees which have been struck by lightning before, but never total devastation like this. If anyone had been standing nearby they could have been seriously injured by the shrapnel, or if the tree had been near a house, windows could have been broken............ Jeez, no wonder Mamma wouldn't let us play outside during thunderstorms.
After my usual 9 months of procrastination I finally got around to cleaning up the mess.
This tree used to look just like the 3 trees behind it, and was of similar size; however, the explosion of the trunk penetrated the ground and spread the remaining trunk pieces, giving it the appearance of having been a much larger tree.................. I decided to leave the remnants standing as a testament to the power of Mother Nature. Besides, it looks kinda' cool.
