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CHUNCHULA, AL (WALA) — Hurricane Zeta pulled up a red oak tree Wednesday, pushing it through the bedroom window of a house off of Henry Davis Road.
Two young children might have been seriously hurt had it occurred just 15 minutes earlier.
“I’m still in shock,” said Matthew Connell, father of 4-year-old twins Matthew Jr. and Addilyn. “I’m in awe over, you know, just the fact that my kids were just here prior to this happening.”
Addilyn was sharing her brother’s room because she was afraid to be alone during the storm, said mother April Connell.
Connell said the crash occurred at about 10 p.m., not long after a lull in the storm drew her and her husband on to the porch. But while they were there, the winds started picking up.
“We saw this tree swaying and decided to go get both of them and move them to our bedroom,” April Connell said.
Added Matthew Connell: “We actually were in the middle of talking about the tree swaying when to started to fall.”
April Connell said she screamed so loud that it brought out her neighbors – during the middle of a hurricane.
“I can’t describe the sound. Oh, my God,” she said.
The tree sliced through the window, falling just short of the bed, suspended by wires. Insulation torn from the walls covered the empty bed.
“See the ceiling fan and all that insulation,” Connell said, as she led FOX10 News on a tour of her house. “They would have been trapped underneath all of that. And we have actually moved a bunch of other debris off of the bed.”
The tree cut clear across the hallway and into the bedroom across the hallway. April Connell says her two older children share that room, but luckily, they were away with their father during the night.
The damage continued to worsen even into Thursday. A crack in the brick wall widened just in the few hours before the Connells spoke to FOX10 News.
The Connells said they see the hand of God in their close call.
“Normally we would never come out on this front porch. It was like a gut feeling from her,” he said, motioning toward his wife.
As for the kids, April Connell said they were more curious than frightened by the experience.
“Matthew’s room is broke, Momma,” Addilyn said. “Matthew’s room is broke.”
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