RIVER ROAD – One local family is trying to salvage what is left of their home after a very large, old tree fell, crushed a large part of the mobile home during a recent strong wind event in Magoffin County.
No one was injured when the tree crashed into the River Road area home on March 25, when winds reached upwards of 40 – 50 miles per hour throughout the region.
Narda Howard, the homeowner, told Mortimer Media Group, “My children are fine and everybody’s okay. My son was laying in his bed and just watched it all come in all around him. My daughter just left or she would have probably been in her room.”
Howard’s daughter’s and son’s rooms were destroyed, as was their bathroom, with no roof left in those areas of the home.
“Some say it’s demolished and some say it may be fixable, so we really just don’t know, yet, what we’re going to do,” Howard said. “I had no home insurance at all. I’ve had a lot of family and friends help with the cleanup and the Red Cross is going to come out this evening. I’ve also contacted the county judge and he’s doing all he can for me, and Frontier Housing is supposed to call me back, so hopefully they can maybe do something to help.”
Howard said she had been concerned about this tree for some time, but even though it was old, it seemed healthy and strong, still.
“If you have an intuition that something’s going to happen, cut that tree,” Howard warned others who may be in a similar situation. “I knew from the time I moved up here that tree was going to get me one day and I wouldn’t cut it because it had been in the family 150 years and it was very sentimental to my mother who passed away.”
Also, the family lost their dog, which was arthritic and a little older, with one of the volunteers helping with the cleanup accidentally running over the dog.
Anyone who would like to help, donate money or building materials, etc., can call Narda Howard at 606-496-9446, or by donating on a GoFundMe set up by a family member, which can be found at https://gofund.me/ed49637e.
