Downed tree crashes into Chesterfield woman’s home

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A fallen tree forced a Chesterfield woman out of her home this morning.

Laura Horton was on the phone with her 15-year-old daughter, when they heard the tree crash into the child's bedroom.

“We talked for just a couple of minutes," said Horton. "Everything was fine. And then I heard a loud crash and her screaming horribly. At that point I didn't know what was going on. And then I could hear a tree. There's a tree in the house."

Horton was at work when the incident happened, and raced home to check on her daughter.

"Once I saw that she was safe, the pets were safe, I was a little bit calmer," said Horton. "But now it's starting to hit me that there's a lot of damage."

The tree fell directly into her daughter's room, but she happened to be downstairs at the time. Horton fears that if her daughter was there, this may have ended in tragedy.

"Luckily enough she was actually in my room when it happened because if she was in her bed it would have probably killed her," Horton says.

Horton and her daughter plan to stay with relatives while they wait for officials to survey the damage.

According to Chesterfield County Fire and EMS, 250 emergency calls were made between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. 110 of those calls were reports of downed trees.

Crews partnered with the county's Parks and Recreation Department to remove many of the trees that were blocking roads.

If you see a tree down in a roadway or on a residence, you can report it to the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) at 1-800-367-7623. If you see a downed powerline, stay away from it and report it to Dominion Energy at 1-866-366-4357.