Massive tree falls on Fairfield home

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield resident Michael Morgan considers himself lucky, which might seem strange considering a tree fell on his house last week.

Morgan said he’s fortunate that he wasn’t home at the time of the incident, or he could have been hurt. A towering tree in Morgan’s front yard at 310 W. Washington Ave. split during a windstorm on Friday, March 25. A section of the trunk, about 3 feet in diameter, fell on the house. That portion of the tree was so long it punctured a hole in the roof of the bedroom on the back side of the house, just above Morgan’s bed.

The trunk knocked the insulation from the roof and onto the bed. Morgan said that, had he been sleeping at home Friday night, he would have been buried under a mound of insulation.

Morgan travels frequently for business, and on that day he had flown from Los Angeles to Chicago. His flight arrived late, and Morgan decided it was best to spend the night in Chicago instead of making the 4.5-hour drive back to Fairfield. He’s so glad he did.

When Morgan drove home on Saturday, he received messages from friends telling him that people were posting photos on social media of a tree that had fallen on a house in Fairfield, and that it looked like Morgan’s house. Morgan initially thought it couldn’t be too bad, but one friend sent him a picture of the giant trunk now resting on his roof.

“That’s when I said, ‘Oh, this is serious,’” Morgan said. “It was a bit of a shock.”

Morgan called a friend to go inside and survey the damage.

“In this age of electronics, I started calling people,” Morgan said. “I knew I needed to put a tarp on the roof, so I called real estate agent Tammy Dunbar, and she gave me some leads.”

Morgan called Midwest Tree Service in Fairfield, and the owner said he would assemble a crew to remove the tree.

“Everyone has been really great,” Morgan said. “Dan Walker is helping me, and I’ve had a lot of support from the community, which I’m grateful for. When you have a loss like that, it takes a few days to finally hit you.”

Morgan said he is pleasantly surprised the house withstood the impact of the tree.

“It was massive,” he said. “Probably 10 tons hit the house.”

Morgan feels fortunate that Friday’s bad weather was limited to 40 mile-per-hour wind gusts. Since the tree poked a hole in his roof, a rainstorm would have been devastating, but Friday’s storm had no rain.

Morgan said he doesn’t think any windows were broken, but he’s still assessing the damage from the impact.

“We haven’t done an X-ray,” he said. “All we know is that the patient has been traumatized.”

Morgan is staying in a hotel now, and said he will have to live elsewhere until his house is repaired. He’s still keeping his appointments that he made before the storm, so he’s spending the day working.

“This was not in my schedule,” he joked.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com