...THUNDERSTORMS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE EXCESSIVE RAINFALL....A SLOW MOVING AREA OF LOW PRESSURE OVER THE EASTERN MID-ATLANTICWILL ALLOW FOR SLOW MOVING THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON ANDEVENING. MANY AREAS OVER THE PAST WEEK HAVE ALREADY RECEIVEDSEVERAL INCHES OF RAIN. THIS WILL MAKE IT EASIER FOR FLASHFLOODING TO OCCUR FOR STORMS WHICH PRODUCE EXCESSIVE RAINFALL....FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM EDT THIS EVENING...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BLACKSBURG HAS EXPANDED THE* FLASH FLOOD WATCH TO INCLUDE PORTIONS OF NORTH CENTRAL NORTHCAROLINA AND VIRGINIA, INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING AREAS, IN NORTHCENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA, CASWELL. IN VIRGINIA, APPOMATTOX,CAMPBELL, CHARLOTTE, HALIFAX, AND PITTSYLVANIA.* UNTIL 9 PM EDT THIS EVENING* SLOW MOVING THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TORRENTIALDOWNPOURS LEADING TO LOCALIZED FLASH FLOODING.* RAIN RATES OF 4 INCHES AN HOUR ARE POSSIBLE WITH STORMS WHICHDEVELOP ACROSS THE WATCH AREA THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THISWILL RESULT IN RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF UP TO ONE INCH IN 15MINUTES WHICH MAY QUICKLY FILL ROADSIDE DITCHES. RAINFALLAMOUNTS WHICH EXCEED 2 INCHES WILL LIKELY LEAD TO FLASHFLOODING OF SMALL STREAMS AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS.PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS THAT CONDITIONS MAY DEVELOP THAT LEADTO FLASH FLOODING. FLASH FLOODING IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION.REMEMBER...TURN AROUND...DON'T DROWN!YOU SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTIONSHOULD FLASH FLOOD WARNINGS BE ISSUED.&&

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Officials: Arrest warrant issued for suspect in fire at Wendy's restaurant where Rayshard Brooks was killed - Lynchburg News and Advance

Residents of another London neighbourhood are angry the city is removing mature trees to make way for infrastructure upgrades.

As of Wednesday evening, nine trees on Highway Avenue in Old South had been felled and a handful of others were marked for removal.

According to the letter sent to residents on May 22, the city planned to remove at least 14 trees on Highway Avenue this spring and at least 16 trees on Lambeth Avenue in the upcoming winter. That includes a Norway Maple in front of the house that Heather Sanderson moved into, with her boyfriend, in December.

"I moved here specifically for the trees," she explained. "I have a lot of birds in my tree, a sparrow's nest in my tree, I have squirrels and everything in there. So to see it come down, would just totally open up the street and make it look awful."

The infrastructure project, slated to start July, includes replacing old sewer and water lines, road reconstruction and new curbs.

Sanderson feels like she's "voiceless" because the city cancelled a public update meeting on the infrastructure project and posted documents online instead. One of those documents, a tree assessment report, said many of the trees are coming down because of construction conflicts with things like curbs and water or sanitary services. Some of the other reasons include trees being in severe decline, being perched high on the boulevard, having root decay or being in the way of snow removal.

It's not the first time London residents have rallied around trees in their neighbourhood. A similar situation unfolded on the nearby Tecumseh Avenue in the summer of 2017, when the city removed trees to lower the street grade and replace old sewer and water lines.

Tecumseh Avenue resident Jennifer Odegaard remembers the fight well.

"We now have problems with traffic moving way too quickly because it appears like a wide open street that someone can just gun down, shade, walkability and enjoyability, these are all things we chose to live in Old South for," she said.

Odegaard said that, at the time, she was assured by city hall that it wouldn't happen.

"And I see it, happening again," she said.

Although it's too late for most of the trees on Highway Avenue, Sanderson said she'd like the city to bring back its arborist to have discussions with residents on Lambeth Avenue before moving forward with the rest of the removal work.

"Put into place a policy that says if we're going to do tree removal on your street, we will inform you when the arborist and the city will be coming back to look at your trees and determine which are sick. From this day to this day, even if you just give us a week. Inform residents that they're coming, so we can be there, we can have a conversation."

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Residents fighting to save trees as infrastructure project begins in Old South - CBC.ca

The communitys trees are important, and many that have been taken down due to the Emerald Ash Borer are currently being replaced.

About five more trees (that are not ash) on the north end of Riverview Park will come down that are dead and deceased. The goal is to plant more diversified trees suitable for the park in both the north and south areas of the park.

The efforts over the next three to five years will have a lasting imprint for the next 30 to 50 years.

Year to date, Nearly 200 trees were taken down and removed, City and private, due to the emerald ash borer. The City recently sent out another 50 letters informing citizens of ash trees still existing in their yard. The City would like to thank those property owners for being responsible and taking on the financial burden to have their dead and diseased trees removed. Dead trees can pose serious harm and at the property owners expense should they fall on a pedestrian or vehicle along with falling on power lines and causing power outages.

The Tree Board Commission volunteers Don Cummings, Bill Sieverding, and Warren Crouch continue to work hard and volunteer their time to help identify ash trees and other dead trees in the city limits along with being a valuable resource to homeowners. They have walked and driven the whole town a handful of times to locate and identify all public and private ash trees, making observations from the sidewalk and street.

The Tree Board continues to hear many compliments from arborists and tree nursey owners regarding the City and property owners efforts in being proactive and taking EAB serious. Many towns and property owners are not aware of the issue, have no plan, and have not taken any action to stay ahead of the game.

Under Chapter 6-13-9 of the City Code, the following is stated for Private Tree Maintenance:

The City shall have the right to cause the removal of any dead or diseased tree(s) on private property within the City when such tree(s) constitute a hazard to life and property or harbor insects or disease which constitute a potential threat to other trees or property within the City.

The City shall notify in writing the owners of such trees. Removal shall be done by said owners at their own expense within sixty (60) days after the date of service notice.

In the event of failure of owners to comply with such provisions, the City shall have the authority to remove such tree(s) and receive full reimbursement from the property owner or charge such expense on the owners property tax notice.

Call City Hall at 872-4456 to arrange a meeting with a Tree Board Commissioner. If you have questions about a possible dead or diseased tree, what type of tree to plant, tree care, etc they can help you.

The City also has a new tree guide brochure available for citizens as we are encouraging tree variety. (Part of that brochure, showing the kinds of trees already planted, are pcitured on this page with a number key). This brochure identifies ten different trees along with providing some reminders when planting.

The City has seen an increase in the popular Autumn Blaze Maple tree and hopes the new tree brochure will help show property owners other attractive and appealing tree varieties.

The Bellevue Municipal Utilities also has a tree rebate program for newly planted trees that provide energy efficiently, reimbursement of 50 percent or up to a maximum of $200 per year.

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The Trees of Bellevue | News - bellevueheraldleader.com

MARIANNA, Fla. (WMBB) The Street Philosophy Institute created a petition last week calling for the removal of the Claude Neal tree located in front of the Jackson County Courthouse.

The particular tree being called for removal is the tree where the SPI believes the public lynching of Claude Neal took place back in 1934.

The night before Neal was lynched, he was arrested for allegedly raping and murdering a 19-year-old white woman named Lola Cannady. A group of six men who called themselves the committee of six publicly lynched him and hung him from a tree in front of the Jackson County Courthouse.

Darien Pollock, the founder of the Street Philosophy Institute, originally created the petition to see how many people would sign it. In just two days, the petition received 3,000 signatures according to Pollock. Now, the petition has over 6,000 signatures.

It is not the first time that the trees on the courthouse square have become a topic of discussion, said Wilanne Daniels, Jackson County administrator.

SPI requested their proposal for the removal of the tree be added to next Tuesdays County Commission meeting.

Pollock isnt surprised by the amount of signatures the petition has received because he feels like since the death of George Floyd, the consciousness is prime for the petition because a majority of people have turned their focus toward racial injustices.

The NAACP chapter of Jackson County made their own statement in regards to the petition. The chapter has said they stand with the descendants of Claude Neal and take the position of the Claude Neal tree being preserved and not cut down. The chapter feels the tree can be used as a visual to teach the good and the bad history of Jackson County.

Pollock was disappointed in the chapters response.

So having a lynching tree, is just as much of a symbol of hate, something that we know, we verified that, as a confederate statue, said Pollock. I see no difference.

The proposal for the removal of the Claude Lynch tree is on the meeting agenda for next Tuesdays County Commission meeting. For more information on the next meeting, head to the Jackson County Commissions website.For the full press release from the Jackson County chapter of the NAACP, click the link below.

Link:
Local group starts petition calling for the removal of lynching tree - WMBB - mypanhandle.com

May 16, 1963 - June 13, 2020 Margaret Dana Mayo Houtman, of Lynchburg, Va., died peacefully in her sleep on Saturday, June 13, 2020, after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis. Dana was predeceased in death by her father, John J. Mayo Jr. She is survived by her mother, Dorsey Davidson Mayo; her brother, John J. Mayo III (Rozita); and her sister, Katherine Mayo Earls (Robert). She is also survived by her beloved nieces and nephews, Alison Gail Mayo, Ian Johnson Mayo, Milan Kozar Mayo, Charlie Kozar Mayo, Emily Katherine Earls, and Alex Cole Earls. Dana was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1963 and lived in Peabody and Lynnfield, Massachusetts before moving to Lynchburg in 1971. She graduated from E.C. Glass High School in 1981 and from University of Virginia in 1985 where she received a B.A. in Religious Studies. She also received a B.S. in Accounting from University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies in Falls Church, Va. in 2004. She worked in Northern Virginia for many years in the accounting field. Dana went on a missionary trip to Belgium during the summer of 1984 with an international group of students and she was invaluable to the group since she was fluent in French. Dana was very involved in her local church and in volunteer work with a local monastery in Northern Virginia as a young adult. In 2014, she graduated from Education For Ministry, an educational and theological four-year course sponsored by the Episcopal Church. Dana was a kind and gentle soul and will be dearly missed by her family and friends. There will be a celebration of life service in the fall or in 2021. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to St. John's Episcopal Church, 200 Boston Ave., Lynchburg, VA 24503, or to Centra Hospice, 2097 Langhorne Road, Lynchburg, VA 24501. The family would like to thank the Centra Hospice team for their invaluable care. Diuguid Funeral Service & Crematory, Wiggington Road Chapel, 385-8900, is serving the family. On-line condolences may be sent to http://www.diuguidfuneralservice.com. Diuguid Funeral Service & Crematory-Wiggington Road Chapel 811 Wiggington Rd. Lynchburg, VA 24502

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newsadvance.com: Obituaries published June 17 | News - Lynchburg News and Advance

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SAYREVILLE Officials in Sayreville have taken action to fine a borough property owner after determining that trees on the property were improperly removed.

During a Borough Council meeting on April 27, council members accepted the recommendation of Borough Attorney Michael DuPont to authorize Construction Official Kirk Miik to issue a $94,750 fine against the Fultons Landing property. The area, also known as the Mocco Property, is 158 acres in size and currently vacant. It is located in the central portion of the borough, south of Main Street and north of the Conrail Railroad Raritan River Line.

DuPont informed the governing body that he received a report from Borough Engineer Jay Cornell following an inspection of the property. The inspection, performed by Cornells firm CME Associates, found that approximately 250 trees were removed as the result of construction activity without a proper permit. Using the penalties set forth in the boroughs tree conservation and reforestation ordinance, CME Associates calculated that the penalty against Fultons Landing totals $94,750.

I had the opportunity to speak to counsel for Fultons Landing and they gave me some argument as to why [the penalty] shouldnt be instituted, DuPont said. I didnt buy the argument and Im going to ask for authorization to have Kirk Miik issue a fine so outlined in the report of CME.

Fultons Landing has been subject to land use applications and litigation for several years. In 2019, the council adopted an ordinance allowing for warehouse space to be developed on the property. Intended to prevent the development of residential units on the property, the ordinance was met with concern from residents over potential contamination on the site, the impact that the proposed warehouses may have on traffic, and other safety and quality of life issues.

After the council authorized DuPont to move forward with having the fine issued, DuPont advised the governing body not to comment further because there may be litigation and charges and liens filed against the property owner.

Resident Arthur Rittenhouse, who is the chairperson of the Sayreville Shade Tree Commission, thanked DuPont and CME Associates for their actions.

When we allow a developer to do work without permits and without checking the permits, this is the type of thing that happens, Rittenhouse said. I would also [add that], in addition to the lawsuit that will be filed or the charges that will be filed, no work should be done on that site until this matter is corrected so that they dont do things in the future such as this.

Link:
Owner of Fulton's Landing property fined almost $100,000 for improper tree removal - centraljersey.com

As part of its commitment to using data and analytics to solve the world's most pressing problems, SAS' recent work includes helping to save the world's No. 1 food crop pollinator the honey bee. With the number of bee colonies drastically declining around the world, SAS is using technology such as theInternet of Things (IoT), machine learning and visual analytics to help maintain and support healthy bee populations.

In honor of World Bee Day, SAS is highlighting three separate projects where technology is monitoring, tracking and improving pollinator populations around the globe. First, researchers at SAS have developed a noninvasive way to monitor real-time conditions of beehives through auditory data and machine learning algorithms. SAS is also working withAppalachian State Universityon the World Bee Count to visualize world bee population data and understand the best ways to save them. Lastly, recent SASViyaHackathon winners decoded bee communication through machine learning in order to maximize their food access and boost human food supplies.

"SAS has always looked for ways to use technology for a better world," said Oliver Schabenberger, COO and CTO of SAS. "By applying advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to beehive health, we have a better shot as a society to secure this critically important part of our ecosystem and, ultimately, our food supply."

Noninvasively Monitoring Beehive HealthResearchers from the SAS IoT Division are developing abioacoustic monitoring systemto noninvasively track real-time conditions of beehives using digital signal processing tools and machine learning algorithms available in SASEvent Stream Processingand SAS Viya software. This system helps beekeepers better understand and predict hive problems which could lead to colony failure, including the emergence of new queens something they would not ordinarily be able to detect.

Annual loss rates of U.S. beehives exceed 40%, and between 25% and 40% of these losses are due to queen failure. Acoustic analysis can alert beekeepers to queen disappearances immediately, which is vitally important to significantly reducing colony loss rates. With this system, beekeepers will have a deeper understanding of their hives without having to conduct time-consuming and disruptive manual inspections.

"As a beekeeper myself, I know the magnitude of bees' impact on our ecosystem, and I'm inspired to find innovative ways to raise healthier bees to benefit us all," saidAnya McGuirk, Distinguished Research Statistician Developer in the IoT division at SAS. "And as a SAS employee, I'm proud to have conducted this experiment with SAS software at our very own campus beehives, demonstrating both the power of our analytical capabilities and our commitment to innovation and sustainability."

By connecting sensors to SAS' four Bee Downtown hives at its headquarters inCary, NC, the team startedstreaming hive datadirectly to the cloud to continuously measure data points in and around the hive, including weight, temperature, humidity, flight activity and acoustics. In-stream machine learning models were used to "listen" to the hive sounds, which can indicate health, stress levels, swarming activities and the status of the queen bee. To ensure only the hum of the hive was being used to determine bees' health and happiness, researchers used robust principal component analysis (RPCA), a machine learning technique, to separate extraneous or irrelevant noises from the inventory of sounds collected by hive microphones.

The researchers found that with RPCA capabilities, they could detect worker bees "piping" at the same frequency range at which a virgin queen pipes after a swarm, likely to assess whether a queen was present. The researchers then designed an automated pipeline to detect either queen piping following a swarm or worker piping that occurs when the colony is queenless. This is greatly beneficial to beekeepers, warning them that a new queen may be emerging and giving them the opportunity to intervene before significant loss occurs.

The researchers plan to implement the acoustic streaming system very soon and are continuing to look for ways to broaden the usage of technology to help honey bees and ultimately humankind.

Visualizing the World's Pollinator PopulationsOn World Bee Day, SAS is launching a data visualization that maps out bees "counted" around the globe for theWorld Bee Count, an initiative co-founded by theCenter for Analytics Research and Education(CARE) atAppalachian State University. The goal of a World Bee Count is to engage citizens across the world to take pictures of bees as a first step toward understanding the reasons for their alarming decline.

"The World Bee Count allows us to crowdsource bee data to both visualize our planet's bee population and create one of the largest, most informative data sets about bees to date," saidJoseph Cazier, Professor and Executive Director atAppalachian State University'sCARE. "SAS' data visualization will show the crowdsourced location of bees and other pollinators. In a later phase of the project, researchers can overlay key data points like crop yield, precipitation and other contributing factors of bee health, gathering a more comprehensive understanding of our world's pollinators." Bayer has agreed to help sponsor CARE to allow its students and faculty to perform research on the World Bee Count data and other digital pollinator data sources.

In early May, the World Bee Count app was launched for users both beekeepers and the general public, aka "citizen data scientists" to add data points to the Global Pollinator Map. Within the app, beekeepers can enter the number of hives they have, and any user can submit pictures of pollinators from their camera roll or through the in-app camera. Through SAS Visual Analytics, SAS has created avisualization mapto display the images users submit via the app. In addition to showing the results of the project, the visualizations can potentially provide insights about the conditions that lead to the healthiest bee populations.

In future stages of this project, the robust data set created from the app could help groups like universities and research institutes better strategize ways to save these vital creatures.

Using Machine Learning to Maximize Bees' Access to FoodRepresenting the Nordic region, a team from Amesto NextBridgewon the 2020 SAS EMEA Hackathon, which challenged participants to improve sustainability using SAS Viya. Their winning project used machine learning to maximize bees' access to food, which would in turn benefit mankind's food supply. In partnership withBeefutures, the team successfully accomplished this by developing a system capable of automatically detecting, decoding and mapping bee "waggle" dances using Beefutures' observation hives and SAS Viya.

Bees are responsible for pollinating nearly 75% of all plant species directly used for human food, but the number of bee colonies are declining, which will lead to a devastating loss for human food supply. A main reason for the decline of bee populations is a lack of access to food due to an increase in monoculture farming. When bees do find a good food source, they come back to the hive to communicate its exact location through a "waggle dance." By observing these dances, beekeepers can better understand where their bees are getting food and then consider establishing new hives in these locations to help maintain strong colonies.

"Observing all of these dances manually is virtually impossible, but by using video footage from inside the hives and training machine learning algorithms to decode the dance, we will be able to better understand where bees are finding food," said Kjetil Kalager, lead of the Amesto NextBridge and Beefutures team. "We implemented this information, along with hive coordinates, sun angle, time of day and agriculture around the hives into an interactive map in SAS Viya and then beekeepers can easily decode this hive information and relocate to better suited environments if necessary."

This systematic real-time monitoring of waggle dances allows bees to act as sensors for their ecosystems. Further research using this technology may uncover other information bees communicate through dance that could help us save and protect their population, which ultimately benefits us all.

See thiswaggle dance project in actionand learn about howSAS is committed to corporate social responsibility.

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VM Practices Reduce Outages and Increase Reliability for Duquesne Light - Transmission & Distribution World

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Parkgoers will again need to make other plans Tuesday and Wednesday if wanting to spend the morning or afternoon at Cheyenne Canon.

The park will be closed to visitors from 5 a.m.-3 p.m. on the 19h and 20th so that crews can continue removing dead trees and perform other necessary maintenance work. The park was previously closed on the 12th and 13th.

The city says among the work started last week and continuing Tuesday, crews will be removing between 30-40 dead and hazardous trees along Cheyenne Canon Road, the main artery in and out of the park, as well as doing maintenance on ditches and culverts along Gold Camp Road.

The trees in question were killed off by beetles several years ago, said city forester Dennis Will.

"Theyre 80 feet tall. They weigh literally tons, and they would put a bonk on your head if they fell on you, so were very concerned about citizen safety. So we want to take the opportunity to take those trees out before they fall and hurt somebody," Will said.

Cheyenne Canon has been even more popular than ever since the COVID-19 outbreak left citizens with few entertainment options beyond the great outdoors. But this Tuesday and Wednesday is a great time to check out another park or open space in El Paso County. The gate to Cheyenne Canon will be closed during the aforementioned hours, but there are still trails leading into the park that don't require using the gate. Even with those back ways into the park, bikers, hikers, runners and other recreation seekers are asked to stay out so that work can be done safely.

"We just have to make sure that everybody is safe. We cant have anyone in there. We want our sawers to be perfectly safe while theyre also working. We dont want them worried about dropping a tree or branch on somebody else. We want them totally focused on what theyre doing, so its about their safety as well as people who may be in the park," Will said.

If the work isn't finished on the 20th, crews will come back at a later date.

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Cheyenne Canon to close May 19 and 20 for dead tree removal, other work - KKTV 11 News

ANN ARBOR, MI When a man trying to cut down a tree became injured and trapped about 25 feet up this week, it was all hands on deck for the Ann Arbor Fire Department.

All on-duty firefighters responded at 11:29 a.m. Thursday, May 21, to the incident on Forest Creek Court off Stone School Road, said Fire Chief Mike Kennedy.

A friend of a homeowner was helping with tree removal when things went wrong, resulting in a case of blunt force trauma, Kennedy said.

It appears as he was taking a limb down, the limb struck him, and so he was injured and also stuck, Kennedy said.

Fortunately, several of the firefighters are members of the Washtenaw County Technical Rescue Team with specialized training to deal with such rescues, Kennedy said.

While the injured man wasnt pinned by the limb, it was still a complex and challenging rescue, Kennedy said, noting crews had to stabilize the patient and set up a rope system, while others cleared the area and braced a ladder.

There was just a lot of complicated and moving parts to this, he said, noting 18 firefighters and six trucks were on scene.

By 12:39 p.m., the man was down from the tree and transported by Huron Valley Ambulance in stable condition to the University of Michigan Hospital, the fire department reported.

He was conscious and alert throughout the entire ordeal, Kennedy said.

Based on the type of climbing and tree-trimming equipment the man had, he seemed to have experience, but he wasnt doing it as a contractor, Kennedy said.

I dont know if he ever did this professionally, but it sounded like he had quite a bit of personal experience, he said. This wasnt like a weekend chainsaw warrior or something.

The mans harness probably saved him from really significant injury, Kennedy said.

While Ann Arbor firefighters were on scene, firefighters from Pittsfield, Scio and Ann Arbor townships provided coverage of the city under mutual-aid agreements.

These types of technical rescues are pretty rare and its been well over a decade since there was a similar tree rescue in Ann Arbor, Kennedy said. Sadly, he said, there usually are some deaths resulting from tree trimming in Michigan every year.

These are very serious events, he said, noting the amount of force from a tree limb can be significant.

Fortunately, he said, firefighters spend a lot of time training for incidents like this, so the rescue went like clockwork.

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Reckless driver chased through Ypsilanti was feeling great on marijuana before arrest, police say

Man arrested on suspicion of firing shot at woman during armed robbery, police say

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Ann Arbor firefighters rescue injured man trapped 25 feet up in tree - MLive.com

One man is dead after a tree fell on a home Thursday morning following a night of strong storms.John Shelton, director of Surry County Emergency Services, said it happened around 5 a.m. on the 100 block of Boeing Lane in Mount Airy.The tree fell on the home near a bedroom, according to Shelton, killing Nicolas 'Nic' Rodriguez.Rodriguez, 20, was sleeping when a tree crashed into his bedroom and killed him. "This tree fell right across the bedroom area. Unfortunately there was no way for him to get away from it. It happened so fast," Shelton said. "He heard a loud bang and thats when he saw the tree," Paulino Galarza said. Galarza is Rodriguez' uncle. Galarza received a call from his brother saying that Rodriguez has been killed. "He couldnt get to him. The tree was pretty huge. So yeah, it was just very unexpected."Rodriguez's roommate was not harmed during the storm.The two roommates played football together at North Surry High School. Rodriguez played linebacker and helped win the team's 2017 conference championship.On Thursday, former teammates visited the site of the crash and posted on social media to share memories and pay their respects."Hed walk into a room. Always be smiling. Always bring a smile to everyones face," Galarza said.Galarza said Rodriguez was studying to become a gym teacher at Surry Community College."It hits me really hard," Galarza said. "Just still in shock like its all just a bad dream."Shelton says tree removal crews raised concerns about other trees in the trailer community in hopes they would be removed before the next big storm rolls through. Nic's uncle has set up a GoFundMe page for funeral expenses.

One man is dead after a tree fell on a home Thursday morning following a night of strong storms.

John Shelton, director of Surry County Emergency Services, said it happened around 5 a.m. on the 100 block of Boeing Lane in Mount Airy.

The tree fell on the home near a bedroom, according to Shelton, killing Nicolas 'Nic' Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, 20, was sleeping when a tree crashed into his bedroom and killed him.

"This tree fell right across the bedroom area. Unfortunately there was no way for him to get away from it. It happened so fast," Shelton said.

"He heard a loud bang and thats when he saw the tree," Paulino Galarza said. Galarza is Rodriguez' uncle. Galarza received a call from his brother saying that Rodriguez has been killed. "He couldnt get to him. The tree was pretty huge. So yeah, it was just very unexpected."

Rodriguez's roommate was not harmed during the storm.

The two roommates played football together at North Surry High School. Rodriguez played linebacker and helped win the team's 2017 conference championship.

On Thursday, former teammates visited the site of the crash and posted on social media to share memories and pay their respects.

"Hed walk into a room. Always be smiling. Always bring a smile to everyones face," Galarza said.

Galarza said Rodriguez was studying to become a gym teacher at Surry Community College.

"It hits me really hard," Galarza said. "Just still in shock like its all just a bad dream."

Shelton says tree removal crews raised concerns about other trees in the trailer community in hopes they would be removed before the next big storm rolls through.

Nic's uncle has set up a GoFundMe page for funeral expenses.

Excerpt from:
20-year-old man killed after tree falls on mobile home in Mount Airy - WXII12 Winston-Salem