Staff members Sarah Hibbs and Ceri Austin-Hart said they were just discussing how the forecast for severe gales had not come to much.
‘‘And then there was a really strong gust of wind which I guess caught our attention,’’ Mrs Hibbs said.
‘‘Talk about commentator’s curse.
‘‘And then out of the corner of my eye, I realised that the tree was falling down right beside the window where Ceri sits.
‘‘It felt like it was happening in slow motion.
‘‘It didn't make a huge noise like you would expect. It came down slowly and gently. It was surreal.’’
While Mrs Hibbs slowly backed away from the window, she called out to Ms Austin-Hart to get away from the window too.
‘‘We stepped away and we went: ‘Oh, my God’,’’ Ms Austin-Hart said.
‘‘Then we went around the building to make sure that everyone else was away from windows and in a safe place.
‘‘We were definitely in a state of shock. I think a few of us were quite shaken after that.’’
Because the tree blocked their view out of the window, they did not realise another tree, further towards Albany St, had also fallen.
‘‘So that was a shock as well when we found that out,’’ Mrs Hibbs said.
‘‘It was frightening.
"My next thought was about whether there were power lines out there and I started thinking about fire, but there are no power lines out there, so that was a relief.’’
Ms Austin-Hart said the library would be closed today and would not reopen until Tuesday, so that the trees could be removed and the stability of others in the area could be assessed.
Mrs Hibbs said staff had since been talking about how lucky they were to have avoided injury, particularly after there had been many near-misses for other people around the country.
‘‘We've talked about how lucky it was that it didn't fall on the road, how lucky it was there was no-one walking underneath, and the way in which it fell.
‘‘It didn't break the windows where we were, it didn't take down the wall where we were. So there was a lot of luck that came into play in how it fell, for sure.’’
Ms Austin-Hart was concerned people were now climbing on and under the trees in Anzac Ave, and urged them to keep clear.
‘‘That’s worrying us a bit because we would hate for something terrible to happen to them.
‘‘They could be unstable. You just don't know whether it's going to move more.’’
Yesterday, after all the excitement, the duo praised the trees for keeping in line with the library’s code of conduct and having the good sense to just fall over slowly and quietly, so as not to disturb readers.
