July's tornado and the elm trees on the National Mall

[MontanaMama]

1. That looks like rot in those elms.

Large elm trees often succumb to Dutch elm disease…you don’t know it until large hunks come off during a storm. I’ve battled debris from my neighbor’s elm tree for 26 years. FINALLY we had a storm that knocked a huge branch off of their tree so that they could see it was rotten all the way through. The arborist told them they were lucky it didn’t fall on their house or ours. They took the tree out and I am thrilled.