Tree Falls on Montgomery Road Home, Owner Doesn't Call 911

No one used the emergency shelter that Howard County opened during Hurricane Irene on Saturday, said Samantha O'Neil, spokeswoman for county government.

But that doesn't mean people didn't lose their homes.

According to Jackie Cutler, spokeswoman for Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services, three and deemed uninhabitable as a result of Irene.

Two were in Elkridge; the other was in Columbia. The inhabitants did not suffer serious injuries, said Cutler. But one home struck by a tree, on Montgomery Road and Harman Avenue in Elkridge, has stopped traffic, causing what a "steady parade of pulled-over cars and cell phone shots."

Frank Harman, who lives in the home and for whom the street is named, gave his account of what happened, in understated fashion.

“I heard the cracking of wood, and it was just starting to come through the ceiling,” said Harman, referring to the tree that toppled onto his Elkridge home Sunday morning. “So I jumped out of bed, closed the door and went into the living room.”

Harman, who has lived in his house on Montgomery Road at Harman Avenue for 78 years, slept in his living room for the rest of the night and didn’t alert authorities.

“If I got out, what do I need to call 911 for?” Harman said.

“When you get old, you do things like this,” chimed in Marie Williams, who lives across the street, standing outside the damaged home.

In the morning, the fire department arrived. “They were just driving by,” said Tom Harman, Frank Harman’s son.

“Crews were in the area,” Cutler confirmed. “They were driving by at approximately 10:25 a.m. when they noticed the tree had fallen.

There were no injuries and there was no need for medical attention, said Cutler. The rapid response crew, fire battalion chief and Howard County police evaluated the situation and the house was deemed uninhabitable, she said.

In the morning, Frank Harman said he surveyed the damage, alerted his neighbor—whose driveway was blocked by the tree—and called his son, “so he wouldn’t worry.”

Several neighbors said they thought the tree falling had something to do with the  on that section of Montgomery Road on Aug. 4.

“The water main break a couple of weeks ago saturated the ground,” said neighbor David Maier. “The root system is not that deep and you don’t see a lot of broken roots in there.”

Cutler said that trees falling was consistent with findings throughout the region. "With the amount of rainfall that we had, with the amount of wind, some of the trees that were older just got saturated by water and it made the roots a little more unstable."

The fire department encouraged residents to check their homes to ensure there were no trees in danger of falling, said Cutler.

As of Tuesday afternoon, construction crews had already begun work on the Harman house.

Tom Harman said he and his three siblings all live within driving distance, so without a doubt, he said to his father: "You're staying with family."