JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WJAC) — Residents in Johnstown got an unusual wake-up call Monday. Heavy rain and winds sent two trees crashing into Betty Stahlman and Tim Forrester's mobile home in Camoset Village.
"Very loud, boom I guess. It sounded like the roof was going to come in. It was very very loud, first one was louder than the second one that's for sure," said Stahlman.
Stahlman had a bad feeling going to sleep that night, and her fears came true. Trees just across a small creek from their mobile home were no match for the elements.
She says the first tree crashed into their home around 1 a.m. Shortly after, around 4 a.m., the second tree came down.
"Betty even said before we went to bed, 'Do you think we should sleep in the living room?' And I thought it was a joke and I laughed, but I guess she was right," said Forrester.
Their porch fence is destroyed, windows are shattered and there are holes in their roof. But luck was on their side in this unfortunate situation.
"I was jolted awake by an extremely large sound that I thought Betty had knocked something over, or we have cats and that they knocked something over," said Forrester.
What Forrester saw when he opened his eyes shocked him. Part of the tree came right into their home and just missed his head.
"I wake up and here there's a big log sticking through the side of the house," said Forrester.
Now, the couple in their 60s are doing what they can to fix this mess. They spent all morning cleaning up branches off their porch, pulling pieces of tree out of their walls and sawing down what they could.
Stahlman hopes the fire department can help them move the largest parts of the trees off the house.
While thankful neither of them was seriously injured and that the damage wasn't worse, Stahlman feels this could have been avoided.
"We offered, like I said, to pay to have those trees removed. All they had to do was give us permission and we couldn't even get that. So it's our loss," said Stahlman.
The trees were on their neighbors' property. As they continue to pick up the pieces from the mess, they fear the trees still standing across the creek won't be for very long.
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