16-year-old boy narrowly misses being crushed by tree that crashed through bedroom: ‘It was close’
DECATUR, Ga. (ANF/Gray News) — A Georgia teen said he narrowly missed being crushed by a tree that came crashing through his bedroom and landed at his feet.
His mother, Ajeanette Edmonds, said the tree fell as a tornado warning sounded during a storm early Monday.
Edmonds said she was trying to move her two sons downstairs to safety when the tree came down.
“It happened so quickly. There was really no time to do anything,” Edmonds said. “Right when I was about to get my phone, the tornado warning came on. So, at that moment, I was like, let me get the boys downstairs. Let’s all go downstairs. I get to the hallway — I’m standing in the hallway, and I hear this very loud noise. In the hallway, the attic entrance started to rattle and debris started to come down.”
Her 16-year-old son, Judah, was asleep in the upstairs bedroom when the tree fell. He told his mother that when he heard the crashing sound, he instinctively curled into the fetal position — a move that likely prevented injury as the tree came down on the lower section of his bed.
“I heard the tree coming down and the first thing I did was put my arms up,” Judah said. “As soon as the roof came down, it landed right on my arms. It was close. If I didn’t curl up, I would have been crushed. It would have landed on my chest.”
The teen was initially trapped inside his room. The only way out was to climb down the tree.
Edmonds, her two sons and the family’s cat were all uninjured.
“He got out somehow, and then I heard him knocking on the kitchen door downstairs,” Edmonds said. “I went down to him and opened the sliding door and then just hugged my child.”
The family said they will stay in a hotel for at least a month until repairs can be made to their home.
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