Tree Collapse Adds Unexpected Drama to Spring Break on Campus

            Spring Break is usually one of the quietest times of the year for the residential community at Athenian, but this past one ended anything but quietly. On the morning of April 6, a live oak tree collapsed on Mt. Diablo Scenic Boulevard, falling just to the side of House 9, on its driveway and the sidewalk.

            “It happened sometime around one in the morning; I slept through it. My husband was still awake and so he heard it and went outside to investigate as did the neighbor across the street. And once they saw where it had fallen, it was just on cars and no houses,” said Director of Experiential Learning and resident Beth Spencer,  “It was huge, it almost covered both of Meadow’s cars that way, but it also covered the entire width of that fire road. So you couldn't have climbed your way through the branches and up the hill.

            “It was kind of amazing in that it fell and it did some damage but not as much as it could have as had it fallen in different directions”

             However, the main damage from the tree collapse was to the two cars of Upper School Head Meadow Davis.

         “Both of Meadows's cars were literally under [the tree]. You could immediately tell that the SUV was not to be redeemed. I was hoping that it had insulated the smaller electric car but it did not insulate it at all,” said Beth.

           “The cars were totally done for, we had to go and buy two new cars” said Meadow.

            Luckily, the effects of the collapse were minimized due to the fact that campus was not fully populated during the break.

           “Since it was the tail end of Spring Break, it didn't disrupt us much because we weren't coming out for brunch or any residential duty, as campus wasn't open yet,” said Beth. “But they did make sure to clear the fire road part of it on Sunday.”

       Usually, a collapsed tree would not need to be moved very urgently, but due to its unique location, this one required removal immediately.

            “We typically are prepared to call these services to come in and help to remove them especially if they're in an area that needs to be cleared,” said Jose Ruperto, Athenian’s Facilities Director.  “This one had to be cleared on that weekend because typically, we could just leave it and it's just ‘come in the daytime and the weekdays’ but this one was on a fire road.”

            According to Jose, there were various reasons why a tree would collapse.

            “The age of the tree, number one. Number two, at that time, it was raining a lot. So when you get a lot of water on the leaves and then on the limbs, it creates a lot more weight. It adds almost 20 percent more weight to the tree. Then the third thing is because we've been getting so much water on campus lately, the ground is really soft, but those are the key factors,” said Jose.

            “I think all of those are kind of related to the exact same issue, right?  The floods, the power outage, and this tree falling are all tied to the rain that we've had the last two years, and live oaks, in particular, have a much harder time dealing with drought, and then when they've adjusted and they've dealt with drought, a whole bunch, now they suddenly get an influx of water while they're used to drought,” said Beth, reflecting on the extreme weather events present at Athenian in the past year.