A large, old iconic oak outside Florida’s Historic Capitol came crashing to the ground Saturday afternoon.
The Tallahassee Police Department assisted the Capitol Police in redirecting traffic as crews descended on the tree, cut it up and hauled the timber away.
Passersby said they saw the tree standing as late as 1 p.m. By 7 p.m. the scene was clear and all that remained was the large stump and a few limbs and leaves scattered around the intersection.
The consensus was the blame could be attributed to days of heavy rain in Tallahassee spawned by the remnants of Hurricane Francine , which made landfall in Louisiana on Thursday. “When the ground gets saturated, it doesn’t make as good of an anchor,” a forester once told the Democrat.
A photo of the tree on its side ensnarled with a traffic signal pole that still managed to jut out over the street in a level manner sparked a shared sense of grief on social media.
The word “heartbreaking” was a common refrain.
“This tree was here when I moved to Tallahassee in ’82, going to look so naked there now,” one person wrote.