Indeed, early on, plenty of explanations were touted: lightning strikes, trees bringing down power lines, a fire shutting down a power plant, control-room operators snoozing through alarm bells, even computer-virus attacks.
As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration notes, the channel of electrical charge is usually attracted to tall objects of the opposite charge -- that's why lightning often strikes trees, telephone poles and large metal objects.
The stricken tree poses no danger of falling.
He got the former but not the latter, and the sound of ball striking tree bark echoed through Amen Corner.
The leaves on one or more branches of a stricken tree suddenly wilt, turn dull green to yellow or brown, curl, and may drop early.
The grounds are nowhere near as grand as Brooklyn or the Bronx, but compete well in the weird bark and striking tree skeleton winter categories.
On Sunday, Petrino, 51, was driving his Harley-Davidson motorcycle on a two-lane road about 20 miles southeast of Fayetteville when he lost control, slid through a ditch and struck tree limbs and a pile of dirt.
And this is beautifully brought out in Cairns's design where the cramped interiors are seen against the context of a summer lawn dominated by a stricken tree filled with mouldering toys and deckchairs.
"It appears from what we can tell at this point that lightning struck the tree, struck the ground and hit him," Deputy Chief Sam DeBella of the Hunterdon County prosecutor's office told The Courier News of Bridgewater.
