SYDNEY, N.S. — SYDNEY — Laurie Dupe knew a big storm was coming, but she wasn't going to let the high winds and driving rain keep her from a good night's sleep.
But the Sydney woman wasn't in bed for long before being awakened late Saturday evening by the crashing sound of what turned out to be a very large tree that had been uprooted by a huge gust of wind.
"It was the most ungodly noise I've ever heard — it woke me up immediately and I didn't know what was going on," said Dupe, who didn't realize what had happened until her husband opened the front door to discover the toppled tree laying diagonally across the uplifted sidewalk, the area in front of the house and over the complete width of the tree-lined street.
"It sounded like a bomb went off — it's really scary to think of how close it came to hitting the house."
The tree may have narrowly missed the Dupe dwelling, but it did take down telephone and power lines leading to their house.
"This house is 150 years old and it survived a fire years ago and now this — the important thing is that nobody was hurt," said Dupe, who added that there was no way she could sleep after the incident and stayed up the rest of the night.
The tree that fell was located on the property of Dupe's next-door neighbour, Bob Pye, who said he only recently considered getting a quote or two in regard to tree pruning. Ironically, the tree he was thinking of having removed was not the one that fell down.
"A lumberjack couldn't dropped it better," Pye said as crews worked on the giant tree late Sunday morning.
"It missed my neighbour's house, the power line and it didn't hit our house. It fell on the street, which was perfect."
By the time the winds had subsided somewhat and the sun shining, dozens of passersby and cruising motorists converged on the scene as they toured the city to see what damage the storm had left in its wake. Some took selfies, while others chatted about the storm.
Neighbour Paul MacDougall, who was outside taking pictures, said the carnage reminded him of the October 1974 hurricane that decimated Cape Breton and left thousands of homes without power for up to a week.
"Fortunately, this wasn't as bad, but I remember that one took down hundreds and hundreds of trees in Sydney alone and we weren't even expecting it, it came out of nowhere," recalled MacDougall.
- with files from T.J. Colello
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