Samuel Williams (left) and Cornell Johnson of Unlimited Moving Services continue to move furniture into a house on St. Charles Ave. shortly after an oak tree fell just feet from their moving truck Monday. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
A large oak fell across the downtown lane and neutral ground of St. Charles Avenue near Joseph Street on Monday morning, and witnesses said it narrowly missed falling on a passing streetcar.
A little after 11 a.m., Lise Anne Werlein was watching through her home’s front window as movers prepared to bring in furniture, when she noticed the roof of a passing downtown-bound streetcar strike a low-hanging branch of the tree.
The streetcar driver seemed to startled but continued on, said Cornell Johnson and Samuel Williams of Unlimited Moving Services, who were both watching from the street. Moments later — less than a minute, by Johnson’s estimate — the tree suddenly came crashing down, the witnesses said.
“It was a shock,” Werlein said. “It’s like a miracle that there was not a car or a streetcar or anybody on the neutral ground when it came down.”
“We’re lucky we didn’t park there,” Johnson said, pointing just a few feet away to where the tree’s massive trunk lay across the street.
Werlein said the sidewalk by the tree had seemed to be cracking more over the last week, even before Monday morning’s rains. The tree must have been leaning slowly for some time before its sudden collapse Monday, she speculated.
“It was evidently coming down gradually because no other streetcars have hit it,” Werlein said.
The Regional Transit Authority had not heard of any streetcar hitting the tree limb, but agency was still gathering reports Monday afternoon, said Patrice Bell Mercadel, communications director for Veolia Transportation. While the tree is being removed, shuttles are moving passengers from Jefferson to State, and streetcars remain running everywhere else on the St. Charles Avenue line, she said.
She could not estimate when the line would be restored. After the tree is removed, the agency must determine how much damage was done when it fell, Mercadel said.
“We’ve got to do a full assessment,” she said.
Streetcars stand still after a tree fell on the streetcar line at St. Charles Avenue and Joseph Street. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
A crowd surrounds an uprooted tree that fell on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line Monday afternoon. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
An RTA worker walks on the streetcar line where a tree fell. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
RTA workers wait to find out if a fallen electrical wire is dead after a tree fell on the streetcar line at St. Charles Ave. and Joseph St. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
RTA workers investigate the streetcar line where a tree fell. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
A worker begins to chainsaw down a tree that fell on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line Monday afternoon. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Photos by Sabree Hill; article by Robert Morris. Contact us at sabreehill@NolaMessenger.com and rmorris@NolaMessenger.com, or post your comment below.
