Tree falls on house, traps woman on porch
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- People in the Five Points area are in shock after a massive tree fell Saturday, trapping a woman on her porch and even dragging down power lines.
Police believe all the recent rain softened the tree's roots and caused it to fall.
Duke Energy Progress crews showed up to remove the tree and start working on line repairs.
The tree basically fell on top of Kathi McFadden.
"I just heard the branches coming and coming and coming," said McFadden, who was on the front porch when it happened. She says out of nowhere a massive oak tree began closing in. All she could hear was branches cracking, and all the while she was thinking "I'm going to be crushed right here."
Within seconds the tree surrounded her.
"I couldn't go anywhere," McFadden said. "I was trapped."
She was stuck on the porch, branches in every direction, and she had no way of getting out. Her front door was locked.
Friends were eventually able to rescue McFadden and free her from an open-sided door.
After she was freed, McFadden made a discovery: the tree also crushed her car.
"I'm so sad," she said. "I just got it repaired for an auto accident and got new tires."
The fallen oak also took down power lines and knocked out traffic signals. Neighbors are unnerved and surprised there weren't any serious injuries.
"We all walk all the time," said Tina Anderson. "Someone could have just been walking there."
People also could have been waiting at a nearby bus stop.
"Very scary actually because like I said, I caught that bus every day so glad I wasn't there," said Raleigh resident Melissa Scott.
McFadden is still trying to understand how something like this could happen.
"It was such a beautiful afternoon," she said. "I was just enjoying the day and I had no clue things would happen. It was surreal."
