Water Oaks, The Tree from Hell

The day after Hurricane Delta, the sun came out and it was a beautiful morning to wake up to unless you had a tree laying across the roof of your house. The sound of chainsaws in the distance was all too real the morning after Hurricane Delta. Water oaks were one of the first trees to fall. Don't judge a book by its cover, the beauty of a water oak is hiding its impending evils.

Delta took down many trees all around Acadiana. Most of the beautiful oaks she toppled are water oaks. The reason these trees fall so easily is that their root formation goes only a few inches deep into the ground. So there is this huge tree weighing thousands of pounds basically sitting on top of the ground. It takes hardly any wind to blow one over.

Local arborist Kelly Hebert told KLFY, "If you aren't taking care of the trees and let then overgrow, you could be putting not only your life at risk but those around you.

It's not a matter of when it's going to come down, it's a matter of we know it's coming down.-Hebert

Water oaks can grow as high as 100 feet tall and 3 feet in diameter. These trees are canopies of evil waiting to cause you problems, not if but when.

Water oaks have been used by people down south for timber and fuel since the 17th century. One of the reasons is because these trees are so easily downed. They look as though it would take a freight train to push one over, but that's not the case, unfortunately.

If you have a water oak on your property that is a safe distance from your home, that's a good thing. Just don't you or your family stand under it when it's windy or the ground is soggy or both.