Karen....the tree was 50 years old, planted in 1958. It will be very sad if it has to be taken out. It supplies biggest share of the shade for 1/2 of our back yard. Bummer!! It was such a huge, beautiful tree. But as sad as all of this was, we had no house damage, and neither did immediate neighbors (one will have to replace his garage roof, a tree punched a huge hole in it), so we were very fortunate in that respect. Thanks again everyone for all the kind words.
The city seems to be giving in and (hopefully) will pick up the debris from this storm. Until today they were saying everyone was on their own. It would probably take us 15 pick up loads to haul our tree debris away. Having to do that in the evening after DH got off work, we would be hauling for weeks.