Rainy weather brings down trees in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO - Just one day after a tree came crashing down in Golden Gate Park, another tree collapsed, blocking a major intersection in San Francisco. Now the city is working to prevent more from coming down as this latest round of storms rolls in.

Before 10 a.m. on Tuesday, a ficus tree came tumbling down near the intersection of Sutter and Hyde streets. No one was injured.

Witnesses say construction crews have torn up the concrete in the area surrounding the tree. Those witnesses watched today as that ficus came down, blocking three lanes of Hyde street and coming to rest against a black Cadillac. "It looks like slow motion," said Ruben Rosales. "It just came, you hear the noise. You think, is that going to fall? Bah, there it is. Ha Ha."

On Monday, it was a eucalyptus tree that came crashing down in Golden Gate Park. Fortunately no one was seriously injured there either, when that tree came to rest on five cars. "We estimate that it's about 80 years old," said Tamara Barak Aparton from San Francisco's Recreation and Parks Department. "It was a large eucalyptus that was fully uprooted in the storm that was about four feet in diameter, and out 80–100 feet in height, that's why it crossed every lane on 19th Avenue." 

The city's recreation and parks department oversees the health of about 131,000 trees, 27,000 in Golden Gate Park alone. With more rain in the forecast, recreation and parks crews are working to try to prevent more trees from coming down.  

"Today our arborists are inspecting other trees in the area that may have been destabilized by that fallen tree," said Barak Aparton. "We've removed a second smaller tree that was adjacent to the one that fell last night."

San Francisco's Department of Public Works crews removed the tree that fell across Hyde by late Tuesday morning. 

City officials said the days of wet weather has weakened the soil around the base of trees, and added weight to their canopies, making them prone to fall. 

The Department of Public Works maintains about 125,000 street trees throughout the city.

In 2016, San Francisco voters approved $19 million per year for tree maintenance. DPW uses that money to prune and trim about 12,000 per year, hoping to make them less likely to fall when the wet rainy weather arrives. 

"We are out there every day, we are out there today, actually to do some pruning," said Rachel Gordon from San Francisco's Department of Public Works. "We had a big tree that came down downtown today, that our crews responded to. We hope it's not going to be as bad as last year. Again, we haven't seen anything like that in a long long time."

With more rain in the forecast, the city is telling people if they see a tree that is leaning or a branch down that is not endangering anyone to contact 311, either on the phone or through the app. If that tree is down on a power line or has injured someone or is in danger of hurting someone, call 911.