An elderly Dundee couple face another sleepless night with a 50ft tree brought down by Storm Arwen slumped against their home until Monday.
Council tenants Stella and Richard Hutchison got the shock of their lives after a tree fell against their Garvock Place property.
Stella, 75 and Richard, 77, are still reeling from the incident which happened just after 7pm on Friday evening.
The pensioners spent Saturday scrambling around to get the insurance process started, whilst also contacting Dundee City Council (DCC) to tackle the problem.
Forestry staff from DCC visited the house on Saturday night before confirming the tree won’t be removed until Monday due to its size.
‘Agonising wait’
Stella said: “The fire service came up after it came tumbling down and said it was too big for them to remove.
“I’ve been on the phone to the insurance, the council and Councillor Ian Borthwick who also contacted the forestry department on our behalf.
“The forestry team came up just after 4pm yesterday and said they can’t do it with the equipment they’ve got just now.
“There was a fear they could cause further damage to the roof if they opted to remove it with the tools they had on Saturday.
“So it will be Monday, its a bit of an agonising wait, you worry another bad night of weather could cause it to move again.
“We sleep at that section of the house where it came toppling down onto and have moved into another area of the house for the time being.”
‘Our worst fears were realised’
The couple, who have lived in the house for more than 30 years, worried something “serious” could happen when the red weather warning was issued by the Met Office on Friday.
Stella said: “Up in the Brackens area we are more exposed to the elements and when that weather warning came in I feared something would happen.
“The trees are quite a substantial size and extremely close to the properties nearby.
“Our worst fears were realised when it came crashing down onto the house.
“Shortly after the fire service left, another substantial chunk came falling off another tree.
“When we contacted the insurance they’ve advised they won’t be able to assess the extent of the damage until the tree is removed.
“Thankfully when the fire service arrived they checked the attic space and said there wasn’t any evident sign of serious damage – they were brilliant to be fair.”
She added: “Monday is a long time to wait till – and what type of pressure is that putting on the roof in the meantime?
“There will be sleepless nights until it’s sorted.”
