A very unfortunate loss to be sure. Wind tolerance though would really not have anything to do with a split in the main trunk as extensive and devastating as this one. Such splits usually result from snow load, an unnoticed flaw in the trunk or branch structure, possibly torrential rain, The pressure exerted by wind is almost always horizontal unless you experienced a rare and very powerful downdraft. I would speak to the people at Rarefind and see what they say. The fact that the witchhazel was shipped also would seem to have nothing to do with what happened. Don't give up on all mail order because of this experience.

Rare Find is in your area and has, or recently had, a whole bunch of witch hazels -- they even host a witch hazel festival in winter! Fairweather is in South NJ and should also have some in stock. Hope you find a good one!

So in fact it has been imported. British references often show and describe plants we don't have in North America. One problem is that most of the population is in the East, instead of out here in the one part of the continent that has a similar climate to that of UK. So plants may be imported to the East, not make it in the conditions there and then be dropped, without ever getting to the Pacific Coast. On the other hand when I went to Britain nursery people I talked to there thought we in "America" had all the good stuff. One batch of a rare tree or shrub I asked about (don't remember what it was) at one place turned out to have been sent there from Oregon.

Again sounds like (rather briefly) delayed graft incompatibility. Consumers have the same problem with various grafted roses, wherein the combination holds up long enough for the plants to size up and sell, only for failure to begin not that long after placement in the final planting site (something else I have had personal experience with). The "root" of this problem also is stocks being used that are not compatible with the scions being placed on them. It reminds me of the endemic production and dispersal of mass quantities of woody plants with often quite severely deformed root systems, due to apparently careless use of bands, liners and other small containers. One might think this constant providing of stock with built-in serious flaws would have eventually backfired on those doing it. But it seems retailers are to an extent happy to get whatever material they can to flesh out their offerings. And end consumers of horticultural products don't as a rule know enough about the subject area to generate an effectively targeted backlash.