Tree Falls On Arlington House

ARLINGTON, MA — If a tree falls on your house in Arlington, what's a person to do? One Arlington resident said he called DPW, which has a 24 hour dispatch team. He wasn't alone.

The Assistant DPW Director Teresa H. DeBenedictis said DPW had received more than 50 calls since the storm started yesterday. Of the 50 plus calls, eight were for trees either blocking roads or large branches in wires, she said.

"It was a 60 foot tree, and the way it came down it missed the power lines, missed the windows, and ended up just resting on the house. [Arlington Police] and DPW personnel got here within 5 minutes of my call, a very impressive response time," Matt Landau posted to social media in the wee hours Monday morning.

But since there was no structural risk and both the power and gas lines are okay, they told him they'd be back when there was more light to remove the tree.

But, he said, it was the periodic very loud bang sounds in the middle of the night accompanied by shaking walls and rattling windows as the downed tree shifts position in the storm that rattled him while he waited for it to get light enough for crews to start working.

This afternoon, by the time DPW crews were finished taking the tree apart, Landau said he was able to assess what happened. He attributed the lack of damage to his home to the fact that the leaves were still up and the branches were pretty supple, providing some cushioning where the tree hit.

"Had we been further into winter I think the damage might have been much worse. Also, it turns out the the biggest branches hit right between the windows on the front of the house," he wrote in an email to Patch. "A foot to either side and the branches would have come through the windows in two of the front bedrooms. So we were lucky in that way too," he said.

The house saw some gutter damage, some slate tiles were missing or damaged from the roof, and a small decorative portico over the front door took a hit, but overall it could have been much worse, he said.

Have you been impacted by the storm this morning? Send us your photos to Jenna.Fisher@Patch.com

Photo of DPW building by Jenna Fisher/Patch

Photo of the house and DPW to the rescue by Matt Landau.