HUNTSVILLE, Utah — No doubt, most people felt the strong winds that whipped through northern and central Utah on Wednesday afternoon, and in one case, those howling winds took down one giant, old tree in the process.
Not just any old tree, but one that was planted at the Harris family's home in Huntsville roughly 60 years ago.
The nearly 100-foot-tall blue spruce crashed right onto the house at approximately 1:30 p.m. while John Harris, a retired school teacher, was home.
“I heard a thump on the house," said Harris. "The wind had been blowing, and it has been raining quite a bit. I heard that, and I looked out the window and saw the tree was down, and I was like 'Oh, no, what are we gonna do?'”
John's mother, Majken, and her husband built the home and planted the trees more than a century ago.
“Well, we built the house in 1964, and we planted the trees probably the next year," Majken explained.
She says for years the trees were small enough for John and his siblings to play on.
“Oh, yeah, we used to put Christmas lights on them," she said. "Not this year."
The good news is that no one was hurt, and damage to the home was minimal. No windows were broken, but Majken said one branch poked a hole through the ceiling and into the bathroom.
“We can live with a hole in the roof right now," she said. "We’ll deal with that.”
John Harris has mixed feelings about the old spruce.
“It’s sad it’s gone, but in a way I’m kind of glad it’s gone. Because I’ve been worrying about it coming over on the house during a wind like this,” John explained.
A local tree company was on scene within a matter of hours and worked through the afternoon and into the evening, cutting up the tree and hauling it away.
John admitted that the only ones who will really miss the tree are the squirrels and at least one family of owls.
