Wendy's right. The fallen branches and limbs was only because of the enormous weight of the ice. There was virtually no wind at all. In fact, if there had been a little wind while the freezing rain was falling, there would be much less damage because as the ice would thicken on the brances, the movement caused by the wind would crack the ice and cause bits to fall off; thus reducing the total weight. However, this was a lo-oooong freezing rain event with zero wind. The limbs and branches and twigs just stayed perfectly still, collecting more and more ice with each passing hour. I stook outside the back door in the middle of the night for about an hour, mesmerized. I listened and watched the branches come down. It was unreal. I was looking straight at a tree I planted in 1974 with my Dad. It has grown to be HUGE now. As I looked at it, there was a loud "gunshot" sound and a huge limb with a diamter of about 12 inches, just seemed to jump off and crash to the ground with a loud THUD! The night was calm and the air still; the kind of winter night where you could hear a pin drop half a mile away. However, this night, about 3 or 4 times a minute, there would be a loud sound like a gunshot somethere in my neighbourhood, followed by loud crashing sounds and a heavy, dull THUD, as a big limb or whole tree came down. The gunshot was the sound of thick limbs and tree trunks suddenly and completely snapping. These were limbs and trunks up to about 16" or 18" in diameter. I was surprised at the way these huge limbs came off. I expected there to be creaking and long, drawn out cracking sounds as limbs and trunks simply drooped under the great weight. However, that's not how it happened. The limbs and tree trunks would hold on to the bitter end. Then, as if there was a small bomb inside the wood, the whole limb would seem to explode away from the main trunk. Or, in the case of whold trees, the trunks would seem fine and holding their own.....then, suddenly and without warning, they'd just seem to explode from within and crash to the ground. I've never experiences anything like it. I'd say that up to 50% of the tree canopy was lost in the worst hit areas. It's a pretty devastating amount of damage.
