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100-year-old Oak tree nearly crushed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' mansion during Hurricane Idalia
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his family narrowly avoid injury as a massive oak tree falls near their home during Hurricane Idalia.
Hurricane Idalia was a close call for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his family, who had a huge oak tree fall near their Tallahassee home during the storm.
The first lady of Florida, Casey DeSantis, shared a photo on Twitter of the massive tree that was split in half by the strong winds.
One part of the tree landed on the ground, while the other humongous part was leaning on the side of the governor’s mansion.
“100-year-old oak tree falls on the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee — Mason, Madison, Mamie and I were home at the time, but thankfully no one was injured,” she wrote.
“Our prayers are with everyone impacted by the storm.”
The governor spoke about the incident at a press conference later in the day, saying that his wife had called him to tell him what happened. He said that the tree was very old and that it did not hit the residence directly, but rather on the side.
“I guess it’s a really ancient oak tree split in half,” he said.
“And part of it fell. I don’t know that it fell on the residence per se. It was a little bit off to the side. So that’s going to be cleared.”
The Flordia Governor also joked that if the whole tree had to be cut down, it would give his kids more space to play baseball in their backyard.
“If they do cut down the whole tree, that’s just going to be more room for my kids to hit baseballs in,” he expressed.
“And so in some respects for us, even though the tree was nice, we’ll probably make do and be quite all right.”
Hurricane Idalia had weakened before reaching Tallahassee, but it still brought heavy rain and wind to the city.
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DeSantis said that the city was fortunate that it did not face the full force of the storm, which could have caused much more damage.
“There’s been rain and wind,” he said.
“There’s some debris. But nothing like if that wall had impacted Tallahassee. I think you would have seen significantly more damage.”
