Carmel home gets smashed by tree

One Carmel homeowner is now without a viable place to live after multiple trees collapsed onto her house.

Her neighborhood on Lopez Avenue is looking at days without any electricity as well.

“All of a sudden there was a big thud, almost as loud as an explosion,” said Julia Lee, a Carmel resident.

Lee did not get much sleep Tuesday night. She got up early to make some coffee, and that is when she heard a startling crash.

“So I came outside to see what had happened and the tree had fallen onto my neighbor’s roof of her house,” she said.

The tree smashed into the left side of the house, crushing the roof and dislodging the pavement.

She did not want to go on camera, but said she is devastated.

“We got another tree here that’s leaned over and been falling slowly all day,” said Lee.

“Numerous trees down all over Pebble Beach, Carmel. Responded to probably 40, 50 calls today,” said Andrew Tope, the co-owner of Tope’s Tree Service.

Tope says calls started about seven in the morning on Wednesday. He says the ground is extremely saturated right now, which means trees are falling.

“Damage-wise, yeah this looks pretty bad. We’re not going to be able to assess the extent of the damage till we get the tree off the house in the morning,” he said.

Residents whose homes were spared are feeling grateful, and are already getting ready for the next storm.

“Part of me tries to keep calm and say it’s natural, but the other part of me says this is worse than it’s ever been,” said Lee.

Residents say they are possibly looking at two weeks without any power. That means no hot water, no heater and no lights. Some are talking about going to stay in a hotel.