MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There was no severe weather happening Sunday when a huge tree came crashing onto a house and car in east Memphis. One person was in the rental property on Mount Moriah, but he escaped without injury.
The tree blocked Tristian Berrios’ steps, and somewhere under those limbs was his Volvo Sedan. The tree fell just as he returned from the store.
“All of a sudden I just hear this loud, crashing sound that sounded like a lightening bolt. Which to me was funny because it didn’t storm that morning,” he said. When it fell, the tree took out some power lines, leaving Berrios in the dark and the cold.
“I had to leave and go to my friend’s house to sleep on the couch, because one night the lowest it got was 32 degrees inside.”
From the air it’s easy to see how enormous the tree is. Marathon Management owns the property and tells us the damage is confined to wood siding, and there are no holes in the roof.
The company plans to make repairs soon and has already cleared some limbs away from the house. They have also credited Berrios for the time the house was unlivable.
There is, however, no hope for Berrios’ Volvo, which now looks more like a Swedish pancake.
“Unfortunately, I only have liability insurance on my car. So there’s really nothing I can do about it,” he said.
Exactly what caused the tree to fall isn’t known at this time. Speculation is the ground, already saturated from heavy rain, may have caused the tree to topple.
Mike Kestner lives in the neighborhood and says, “Well, you don’t like to see it happen at all really. But it’s life.”
“It could have been a lot worse. I could have been in the car, or it could have crushed me inside the house,” Berrios said.