Tree Falls Onto Richland Home During Friday Storms

Thunderstorms moved into the Pine-Richland area Friday afternoon with heavy winds and rain and what seemed like constant lightning.

responded to a home on Clarenceceux Drive after a large tree fell on it. No one was injured.

Power lines and trees fell across roads and fires were reported around the region.

At one point, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning and watch, as well as a flash flood warning for Gibsonia and other areas.

By 10:15 p.m., only an air quality alert remained on the National Weather Service’s website. Saturday will be a code orange day, which means air pollution concentrations may become unhealthy for sensitive groups – children, the elderly, and those with respiratory or heart problems.

In Richland, firefighters checked the home on Clarenceceux Drive and found no severe structural damage, fire or water leaking in, said Capt. Bob Woods. A professional tree company must be summoned to remove the large tree leaning against the home, he said.

Inna Holovatiuk, of the North Hills, said the home belongs to her 87-year-old aunt, Kateryna Dowbenko.

As she stood in the living room, she pointed to a wall of windows and a glass door that leads out to a deck and the tree. Holovatiuk noted the pictures askew on the living room wall, probably because of the force made when the tree landed on the house.

The home is next to a heavily wooded lot with a small stream running through it. Holovatiuk said she wondered if the water had eroded the ground around the trees roots.

Holovatiuk said she and her husband would probably stay with her aunt Friday night because the elderly woman was shaken by the incident.