That is one heck of a split on that poor tree. On one of my silver maples I would call it sun caused. Live oak doesn't do that though if I understand.... Am I seeing right there is a section of bark breaking off on another part as well? Personally I think the tree is going to have an uphill fight. If it was out in the middle of my yard I would leave it. When trees in my yard have exhibited that kind of problem I have removed them if they overhang my parking area, my house, my garage, my shed, my dawn redwood, anything I like. Now I have a kid. Wonder if a kid playing in the yard will make me more cautious. I wish I could grow live oaks in zone 6 and also think the gnarly tree look is cool. What would I do.... Out in the middle of the yard, leave it. I would plant another live oak near its drip line. You say "one of the hurricanes". If the exposed structural wood of this one gets compromised it has to end up on the ground. You might get an early start by planting the replacement. IF it overhangs anything you like, chop her down and start over. Heck, plant two or three replacements if your yard has the room.

That is pretty amazing! Were no stranger to tornadoes here in the DC area, as we usually have a few. Ive actually SEEN two in real life here, and one way down in central VA. One of the ones I saw here passed about 2,000 feet from where I lived on the 14th floor. I watched the whole thing and saw the damage occuring. It was an EF0 when it passed us, and lifted and touched down a few times in Northern VA, Crossing interstate 395 twice and touching down next to the Pentagon, and passed the Washington Monument just above the ground. As it moved NE is turned into a monster EF4 and killed several people in College Park MD. THis was back in 2001 or 2002 I think. We have had a few EF4s here, but most are EF0 or 1s. We got hit be severe weather several times this summer, and my neighborhood got the worst storm of the summer. We took a direct hit. It was a microburst, with winds around 110MPH. IT was as was described here... a wall of rain and everything turned white like blowing snow. It ripped up around 1000 trees in our neighborhood, partially ripped off roofs, blew off several Chimneys, destroyed several large signs for businesses, blew out several large windows including that of our post office, ripped shingles and siding off of most houses including ours, bent METAL LIGHT POLES at a 90 degree angle, crushed about 150 cars, and killed 1 person. You name it it happened and people were finding property blown several blocks away. Many of my friends here took extensive damage. It literally looked like a BOMB had gone off here, and it sounded like a freight train when it went through. It only lasted about 5 minutes or so, and the gusts to 110 was only about 30 seconds, but man it was insane. This was easily a quarter century storm. I saw the PURPLE coming right for me on the radar, and we were under a severe warning for damaging winds of 80+. no one was expecting the 110+ MPH winds tho. I was outside trying my best to secure things, take down the umbrella, pile up the chairs, take the glass out of the coffee table, bring in the cushions.. etc. I heard the first gust coming and it sounded like a train coming. I could see debris and dust in the air about 30 seconds before hit hit. It was probably about 65 MPH. It was a dry gust before the rains. Then the rains started and each subsequent gust was stronger and stronger until the big one came. I would have gone in the basement but the only way in there is to go outside so I was stuck on the ground floor. I moved to the side of the house(front) that was not facing the winds and could see peices of siding and roof shingles and large tree branches flying through the air. The house shook like an earthquake and creaked. I was pretty damn scared because you couldnt see much. Fortunately the sudden wind direction change never came, and after 5 minutes of hell, it was over. No power, sirens going off all over, EVERY street blocked. Could not drive anywhere. It blew all fo my plants flat over, as well as all the furniture, and picked up a 200 pound shed and tossed it 30 feet like a toy. The yard was filled with 20+ foot branches but fortunately no entire trees came down right near me. Everywhere else was a different story. Every other house had a tree on it. The official wind gust recorded at National Airport 1 mile away was 74MPH, however they were not in the direct path of the microburst. The winds were estimated at about 105-115. I have been through a CAT 2 hurricane before, and this was IDENTICAL to what I experienced in that. Glad to hear you took no damage. Some how, none of our furniture nor plants got damaged. the only thing damaged was a couple of clay pots which were lifted and thrown. The plants (Bananas) in them were fine. The only other damage was some siding and shingles ripped off the roof, but that was it. We got VERY lucky because many right around us within 20 blocks got extensive damage. There are sections of our neighborhood now that look completely different. Where once the trees and yards were filled with 100 year old trees, there are very few left standing and it is very "open" looking now. Thanks for the story and sharing this with us. Its been a pretty violent summer for lots of people in lots of different places for sure.

Actually the whole house surge suppressor does nothing to help a lightning strike on/through your house. What you've probably installed is a MOV based surge arrestor which means that surge coming through the line will get damped and taken down. So, yes if the strike hits your on-pole transformer it will more than likely minimize the damage to your appliances. However, that case of a house being struck near you and burned down - well, the MOV does nothing for that because you aren't giving the strike an easier path to ground. it will still blow through whatever it is going to go through (trees, houses, etc) until it finds ground. A lot of houses burn down with a lightning strike for whatever reason. Not sure if its the lightning causing the fire or the resultant electrical charge frying everything in its path, but it is an issue when a strike happens. I think people need to understand that it isn't a lightning rod that gives protection. Get a qualified study and get some decent information. I don't see how you can decide that 'lightning rods weren't going to provide enough protection to ensure" your house wouldn't be fried, yet believing that a MOV sink will ??? The 'rods' or air terminals are above the roof line and tied together to down conductors to ground. The question is whether the installer engineered it such that its adequately installed so that the coverage attracts a strike to go that route vs another - not whether it works or not. Now whether you want to pay for it, can afford to pay for it or don't want to pay for it can certainly factor into whether one installs it and I can understand that. But to say that installing a MOV sink will protect yourself over a lightning protection system is a bit absurd. (BTW, an adquate LPS contains a MOV sink as well, but its the other components tied into protecting the entire house) The other components are potential lifesavers as it protects the building- the mov sink only protects the powered items within the building.

Seems to usually be at random, but I have two mildly entertaining/interesting stories that I know of. My previous neighbor once got struck by lightning while washing dishes and I would think that she never did that again during a thunderstorm. At the Biltmore estate in asheville (one of the best places for garden and landscaping inspiration) they have a row of tulip poplars o each side of the fountain (in the front). You would wonder why they haven't gotten very big considering how old some of the trees there are. A tour guide told me the reason they never got very big was because lightning would strike them during thunderstorms. I have seen about 5 of the trees replaced in the past 4 years, always with large B&B specimens. Here is a picture where you can see the row of tulip poplars: