Staff photo / Ed Runyan Gary Foster of Shannon Road in Liberty Township stands near the trunk of a pine tree that fell in his front yard early Wednesday during a rainstorm. The tree is 51 feet tall and was is 30 years old. It fell across Foster's driveway, but he wasn't going to be going anywhere Wednesday because he and his wife are working from home, Foster said.

Staff report

LIBERTY — Gary Foster’s son called him Wednesday morning and asked him if he planned to go out.

“You can’t,” his son said.

The reason? The huge Scotch pine tree in Foster’s front yard had fallen overnight. His son called to let him know.

The 51-foot tree had fallen over the driveway, blocking it. It was a bit of a surprise because the tree was by all appearances healthy. But the overnight winds and rain broke it off at the base.

Perhaps fortunately, Foster and his wife are working from home now because of COVID-19, so they didn’t have anyplace to go right away. Foster planted the tree in that spot in 1990 after obtaining it in an unusual way.

He saw the tree fall off of a truck and helped the driver retrieve it. But a branch had broken, and the driver said he could no longer sell it like that, giving it to Foster.

“I brought it home, and it grew wonderfully,” Foster said. “It’s a beautiful tree.”

The big pine was one of three trees that fell in the 1600 block of Shannon Road early Wednesday. Branches fell out of a tree in the front yard of a house just up the street, knocking down the power line serving the house and falling across that driveway.

A tree also fell in the backyard of another house nearby.

On the other side of the township, two pine trees fell over the power line on Fisher Drive off of Loganway.

ELLSWORTH CLEANUP

While utility crews worked around the general area of Dave Altiere’s home on U.S. Route 224 in Ellsworth Township, he had his own crew of 20 people helping clean up his property after the storm.

Just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, most of the damage was cleaned.

“You should have seen the damage before. It was terrible,” he said.

Altiere, an owner of CBS Top Soil and Altiere’s Home and Garden, got up and went to work as usual Wednesday morning, but came home to a yard full of people, pitching in.

After word got out about the eight trees that fell on his property– he now only has two standing — friends, neighbors and family came to help.

“I really appreciate their help,” he said.

People were raking, chopping wood, and using equipment to move tree trunks, taking a minute here and there to take a break in the sunshine.

A portion of a neighbor’s garage blew into Altiere’s yard, and trees were downed on fences.

In front of his house, utility poles were resting on lines.

His property didn’t lose power, but when he looked outside during the storm and saw the lines and transformer down, it appeared that residents to the east of him didn’t have electricity.

The utility company did have to cut his power, though, on Wednesday afternoon to complete work, Altiere said.

Altiere has lived at the property for about 20 years, and he said he doesn’t remember a storm like this one.

“You just heard … Just a big whistle. It was here. You couldn’t have made it to the basement,” he said.

There was no structural damage to the house, and no one was injured, Altiere said.

Columbiana, Summit and Medina counties were among the hardest-hit areas in the storms, according to the Associated Press.

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