After the Douglas fir fell and nearly killed her daughter, Portland told Sarah Bond she would need to pay a retroactive permit fee of at least $700 to compensate the community for lost tree benefits. The city that denied her permit then handed her a bill for the tree's removal.
Where this was said
At 23:29 · chapter starts 21:00
Sarah is at the backyard window when she hears it: the unmistakable crack of wood splitting. In a series of snapshots she will replay for years, the tree swings and then collapses onto the house — directly onto the closet where the cats like to hide, the closet the girls had just entered. Sarah races upstairs, the roof caved in above her, screaming for JoJo. JoJo's friend — white as a sheet, silent — points toward the bedroom. Sarah turns to find the closet reduced to splintered wood. Then she hears her husband Joel call out: 'I got her.' JoJo is in his arms, covered in dust and wood chips, physically unharmed but shaken. As the family rushes to the car, Sarah takes one last look at the wreckage. 'The first thought that came into my head,' she says, 'was: we all lived. And we never have to worry about that frickin' tree again.'
After the Douglas fir fell on Sarah Bond's house, Portland told her she owed at least $700 in retroactive tree permit fees.
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