I almost lost my 66 in a wind storm.

[Real_McCoy]

On Friday May 8th, a storm blew through my area with 80+ mile an hour winds. There is an old oak tree in the right-of-way on my property and I park my truck near it. This tree is huge (well not compared to a redwood, but in my area it is considered very large), standing about 75 ft tall with a span of about 60 ft.

At 5AM I heard the rain start with a little wind. With softball sized hail forecasted, I got up to check out the situation. The electricity was off and the entire neighborhood was black. I was watching the storm through the window via lightning flashes. A branch broke out of my oak tree and I commented to my wife about it being the largest branch I had seen come out of this tree. I turned to go get my battery lantern and seconds later I heard a crack and crash. I ran back to the window to see what had happened. The next flash of lightning revealed that my truck was no longer visible.

I could not find a flashlight anywhere as the kids were playing flashlight tag the night before and left them outside.

The storm passed and daylight broke. To my dismay, my truck was under a mountain of tree limbs. The back bumper which is normally stock height was within 4 inches to the street. There were tree major braches from the tree stacked on top of the 66. The smallest was about 10 inches thick, followed by the largest which was a staggering 28 - 30 inches thick. Finally, on top of the pile was a third hunk of tree that was about 18 inches thick.

Fortunately, all three branches were lodged in the crook of the tree and the tops of the branches fell into the street around my truck. The first branch rested on my cab on the back edge of the passenger side. A good sized dent was left behind, but had the branches not caught the crook the cab would have been smashed.

After 2 - 3 hours of cutting branches around the truck, I was finally able to drive it out by gassing it and dropping the clutch. I took all she had to free herself, but with determination and perserverance the 66 lives. This goes to show you why the slogan is "Chevy Tough"!

Pics to be posted soon!

[jgh64pkup]

man that sucks but at least it didnt crush it that would have sucked worse
im sorry to hear about it

[jason65]

Glad it aint totaled. How dos it look? Got any pics of the damage?

[Real_McCoy]

[Revoh]

Ugh. What a mess. Hang in there.

[jason65]

I see what you mean. It was a good thing the other end of the branches were still in the tree.

[Bears63]

Wow, that could easily have been catastrophic to the ol' gal. That was good fortune that it turned out the way it did.

[protrash64]

Talk about dodging a bullet!!!! A similar thing happened to Ironbutt down in Texas with one of the hurricanes last season.

[Alan's Classic]

That's some scary $hit. I'm curious to see it with the tree off of it.

[retodd7711]

Holy crap!
Could of been much worse.
I'm glad these are not pictures of your house with that tree on top of it.

[Real_McCoy]

This is the worst of the the damage.



Other than that, I will be replacing the rear coil springs, shocks, and maybe the trailer arms (may have bent one slightly). These items were weak already and were slated to be replaced soon anyway. The bed has some light damage, but is nothing compared to existing damage. I was already in the market for a replacement bed. I will be calling Tony before too long if I can't find one locally.

[Real_McCoy]

BTW, I am still driving her. All seems to be ok, mechanically speaking.

[62 short step]

Wow!! Glad its ok! Other than the dent on the roof, could have been worse.