Windstorm sends tree crashing onto Broadway
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A wind storm last Thursday afternoon in Tillsonburg caused a section of a tree to crash down blocking Broadway at Bear Street for a few hours just north of the downtown area.
“I didn’t see the tree fall,” Sam Thorne, who lives across the street. “I was at the window upstairs and I was about to take her (his dog) outside and I heard the sound of the tree falling. The cracking and the car skidding its brakes. I don’t know how close it was. From up there all the trees blocked most of it, but I could hear the sound of it.”
On weekday afternoons Broadway is Tillsonburg’s busiest street – and so it’s not surprising that the branch that fell and blocked the road nearly caused an accident.
“It is the main street,” nodded Julie Thorne. “I was supposed to be working, but I came home when he said a tree fell down… because who knows, you could be stuck not even getting into your house.
“Since I’ve been home, there’s been people stopping and taking pictures – almost causing car accidents.”
Southbound traffic was blocked at the Concession Street intersection, and later northbound traffic was detoured at Venison Street by a volunteer firefighter, allowing town staff to safely remove the section of tree.
“I think they have to figure out if they’re going to just start chopping it or if they’re going to just move it,” said Julie. “In the country, it just kind of sits there for a while and you re-route.”
There were reports of branches coming down across town Thursday, and across the Oxford-Norfolk region.
cabbott@postmedia.com
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