A large oak tree narrowly missed a motorist but damaged two parked vehicles when it fell on a quiet Saanich street on Thursday.
Jody Flatman was driving along Viewmont Avenue about 5:15 p.m. when she saw power lines above her start to shake.
The next thing she knew, a large oak tree, with a trunk that looked to be about five feet in diameter, toppled over, landing on a grassy boulevard parallel to the road.
Branches from the tree came raining down behind her, crushing a Nissan Versa and damaging a Toyota Corolla behind it. Both vehicles were unoccupied at the time.
Saanich firefighters and police officers attended the scene but did not find anybody injured.
“That was the first report of a tree down in Saanich in a while,” said Const. Markus Anastasiades, spokesperson for Saanich police.
The branches took down the power lines and about 2,000 households in the area lost electricity, according to B.C. Hydro.
Ted Olynyk, a spokesperson for B.C. Hydro, said initial reports indicate none of their equipment was damaged and the power outage was most likely due to a blown fuse.
Flatman plans to buy a lottery ticket to celebrate her close call.
“I was literally seconds away from the tree coming down on me,” she said. “I would have been crushed if the tree had come down a bit more to the right.”
