Moisture does make a big difference, especially with the coastal clay. It's surprising how far they can lean before the roots actually bulge or pop out of the ground on the windward side. Had several plants leaning in our fairly new development, but only saw roots on the few that fell all the way over. Believe it was Alicia, which didn't dump the kind of water Issac brought, but our soil still became pretty saturated. Figured it was all the large poorly planted developer trees rolling around on their root-bound balls. Could also try soaking the root area over several days and pulling it back with a pulley cable - possibly in combination with some digging.

Damage report from western Boca Raton... My back is sore, really sore. Oh, and some dead Areca fronds fell down... around 843 of them. Honestly, I'm going to have a hard time claiming I survived a Cat 4 hurricane. Matthew was nothing compared to Francis and Jeanne. Even the three days of Irene were much worse rain than we got from this storm. I'm thankful, don't get me wrong, and even more thankful that it missed Jamaica - our home away from home, but after 11 years of not having to hang the shutters, my back was not entirely up to the task. There were cookies and Advil aplenty yesterday when the last piece of galvanized steel shutter was shoved into the corner of the garage. For those of you, like me, who were spared the ravages of what could have been the storm of our lifetimes, we should wipe away the sweat and hope it's another 11 years before we go through this again. For those of you who lost part or all of your garden, remember - they're just plants and they'll grow back eventually; as long as you're okay and your house is in one piece, say thanks to whoever you thank when miracles happen.

Hey everyone! I'm alive and well, I just got my power back on. 6 1/2 days without power. I did enjoy the peace and quite, but it was starting to get cold at night, so it's nice to have it back. Around me did receive damage, but me, my family and my roses were spared. Our oak trees protected us. I hope everyone else was spared some of the worse. Virginia, I heard Florence, around 30 minutes from me received worse than I did. Mostly alot of down trees and power outages here. I hope you are doing well. Thanks portlandmysteryrose for the good wishes!

IMHO you are asking for trouble planting a live oak that close to the house. Even if the rooting wasn't an issue, eventually the thing will encroach on your foundation and overhang the house. Now some folks LIKE that, because they want the shade. It is a trade off... the risk to the house vs the aesthetics and shade. I would say you still have 10-20 years before it becomes a real issue though. And even if it doesn't fall over in a hurricane, it is very common for live oak to drop significant sized branches.