Texas Gardening: Is this bad?, 0 by Clathrus

Clathrus wrote:
Hollow trees are picturesque, no doubt about that. They can also be very, very dangerous. I/ve made a good bit of money as an expert witness when people have been injured by what are called "hazard trees." This, and the next picture, demonstrate that. A colleague of mine had a tree with "heart rot" which caused the strong, inner column of non-living structural wood to decay. One morning, about 3:00 am, this tree fell over on his house. His 12 yr. old son was asleep in bed, but the tree cracked first, and fell over relatively slowly. The noise of the crack, or some noise by the tree, caused his son to sit up in bed because he thought his big sister had come into his room to bug him. When he sat up, a limb from the tree came through the roof and stabbed down where his head had been. The first photo is of the tree; the second photo is of a very narrow escape. I used the photos in my Forest Pathology class to demonstrate the dangers of hollow trees.