Timber! NY Homeowners Catch the Incredible Moment a Giant Tree Is Uprooted and Topples in Storm

While Hurricane Sandy left many scrambling, one set of homeowners in Huntington, New York, were surprisingly calm as they witnessed, in real-time, a giant tree in their Long Island back yard being uprooted and toppled by the strong winds. Perhaps they were just thankful it appeared to be leaning away from their house before it went down.

Either way, homeowner Mathew Weinschreider was quick-thinking enough to grab a camera and record this event.

In the footage, you can see the ground in front of the tree's trunk, which has a child's basketball hoop on it, beginning to buckle and bubble as the root system emerges.

(Image: YouTube Screenshot)

(Image: YouTube Screenshot)

(Image: YouTube Screenshot)

Check out the footage:

In the video, you can hear one of the spectators inside say "There it goes. Uh oh, uh oh." Then the tree topples over onto the fence in the opposite direction of Weinschreider inside the house. Another person mentions that the tree barely missed the house on the other side of the fence.

Some of the highest sustained winds during Hurricane Sandy, which battered the East Coast early in the week, reached up to 80 miles per hour.

(H/T: WSOC TV)