DENVER — Of all the things Anna Valentine-Parker and her husband Andy Parker could lose during high winds, a tree and a dinged neighborhood watch sign aren't the worst possible damages. Still, the sight of a large pine uprooted in their front yard was shocking.
Anna was at work when she got a call from her neighbor that one of their trees came crashing down Monday. Andy was also out of the house and had to rush home. The two were thankful that no one was injured.
"Inspected the damage and immediately went for my chainsaw and got to work, clearing the road," Andy said.
"Thank God, he’s a lumberjack," Anna said.
The Parkers said they've never had a tree fall due to wind. They've had some trees cut down that presented possible threats to their property in the past. Anna said they try to schedule yearly inspections.
"It’s kind of sad," Anna said. "It was one of the anchors. Not a good anchor now."
Anna and Andy both said they didn't think the winds were strong enough to bring down one of their trees, but with some peak wind gusts getting up to 60 mph near Denver and 70 mph near Aurora, damage littered neighborhoods.
"Last night I thought it was pretty windy, but I didn't think it was that bad this morning when I went to work around 6 a.m. so I thought everything seemed OK, but I was wrong," Anna said.
"I don't know what the winds were here today, but they must have been pretty strong because this tree has been up at least 75 years," Andy said.
Anna has lived off of Ivanhoe Street and 17th Avenue her entire life. She said she grew up in the home and seeing something come down that preceded her family was hard to process.
"Love trees. That’s what we love about Park Hill, different trees," she said.
"I guess we’re going to have to plant a new one," Andy said.
On the tree were some clay art pieces made by Anna and Andy's children 20 years ago.
"Our kids made them in grade school, kindergarten, they just made pottery," Anna said. "We’ve just kind of saved them."
The clay pieces weren't damaged and were able to be removed.
"We’ll add them to that tree over there. Got a couple little relics," Andy said.
Within two hours after the fallen tree was discovered, a tree service had arrived to chop up as much as they could and break down branches.
The homeowners asked for at least two logs to be saved to be added to a homemade motorcycle course the Parkers built for their son in their front yard.
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