A microburst — a small but powerful downdraft — flattened trees in the July Creek Picnic Area near Amanda Park last Saturday morning, according to Daily World reader Nan Rutledge and her husband Steve, who live nearby.

Rutledge lives about a half mile from the scene, and she and her husband went to check the picnic area after hearing a tree go down, a rumbling sound and branches cracking.

“My husband thought it was a landslide or blow down,” she said. “The trees that you see in the campground are huge, one Sitka spruce and one Douglas fir. It looks like the Sitka spruce brought down the fir on its way down.”

The picnic area is on the north shore of Lake Quinault, accessible via the North Shore Road just northeast of Amanda Park.