BURIEN, Wash. — A relaxing, warm day at the beach under blue skies turned to disaster for a half dozen car owners on a lazy Labor Day afternoon, Monday.
When they returned from waterfront walks, back to their cars parked in the upper lot at Burien’s Seahurst Park, they discovered an enormous tree had fallen and crushed their vehicles.
A towering tree toppled onto six SUVs and sedans.
A red Honda Pilot sustained the most severe damage.
The tree landed squarely on its hood.
A man named Danu had parked his little blue sedan three spaces down from the Pilot.
He was stunned.
After leaving a barbecue with friends in the park, he found his fender had been smashed, and his window shattered.
“I see a whole tree stacked on six different cars,” he said. “Wrong time. Wrong moment.”
He says he’s checking with his insurance company to make sure it will cover the damage.
It’s unclear what caused the tree to fall.
It looked relatively healthy, with good growth of green leaves.
But it completely snapped at the base of its thick trunk.
Luckily, no one was in any of the vehicles when it fell, and no one was injured.
David, who was planning to ride home in Danu’s car, also couldn’t believe what had happened to his friend’s vehicle.
“Crazy. A natural disaster that shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “There was no wind. There was no cause. It just fell out of its own will.”
Park employees arrived soon after getting reports that the tree had fallen.
They used chainsaws to remove the tree’s huge trunk and brought in a front loader to remove heavy limbs from the damaged vehicles.