LAKE CITY, Fla. – A Lake City woman and her mother are thanking God they are alive after a tree crashed into their mobile home before dawn Wednesday.
Much of the area was hit with rounds of rain and strong wind gusts, but none got it worse than at the home of Lenora Campe.
Just before 5 a.m., Campe received a News4Jax weather alert saying, “Take cover now. Tornado rotation."
“The next thing I know, I got a call from my wonderful maintenance man to grab the babies, grab my mom, and head to the bathroom," Campe said.
She took her mom, Louis England, and her three dogs toward the bathroom to hunker down and a tree crashed into her home at the Cannon Creek Mobile Home Park, near the intersection of State Road 47 and County Road 242.
“I felt the whole trailer shake. I heard my ceramic tiles from my patio all crashing and breaking. And when this trailer shook, I honestly thought we were all dead. It was horribly terrifying," Campe said.
From inside the home, you get a sense of how powerful the storm was.
“That’s what’s left of the TV. It shot clear across the room, on top of me. Everything, the coffee table, everything went that way. I got a small injury on my arm," Cambe said.
That mother and daughter said they’re going to do their best to stay in their home, but they are receiving help from the American Red Cross, including fixing the roof. A tarp is all that separates the women from the outside at the moment.
In front of the damaged home, a piece of wood stands in the shape of a cross.
“I believe that wholeheartedly was a sign of God and he protected us with this," Campe said.
Columbia County Emergency Management told News4Jax two other homes received storm damage early Wednesday morning but there were no significant injuries.
The National Weather Service will go to Campe’s home to take pictures and determine whether straight-line winds or a tornado caused the damage.
