Largest east USA oak tree loses limbs

Whoa! That is one big tree. I had a 10 ton one fall in my front yard right before I had to sell my house. I hope they don't waste the wood from the fallen limbs, get them to a sawmill and make some reproduction chairs or pie chests out of it or something.

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr/11/great_middleton_oak_peril36875/

SUMMERVILLE — A massive branch about 5 feet in diameter snapped off the Middleton Oak as Sidney Frazier worked elsewhere at Middleton Place.

"I was on the other end of the garden, and I could hear it," said Frazier, Middleton's vice president of horticulture. "It sounded like thunder."

The first branch broke off around 2 p.m. Wednesday. Later that night, a far larger limb cracked and slammed to the ground, blocking a garden path.