COLUMBIA COUNTY, fLA. – A scary video in Columbia County showed a family crawling under a tree that fell in the middle of their house as Hurricane Idalia hit the area Wednesday afternoon.
The house was destroyed, but luckily no one was hurt.
The wind from the storm was so strong the tree was detached from its roots.
“It was scary,” Shara Owens said.
Owens is the neighbor who lives next door to the home that was destroyed and her house was also impacted by the tree falling. Some of the limbs hit her roof and caused damage. Owens said she quickly got her family out of her house.
While outside she heard something startling and jumped into action.
“I heard one of the babies crying real loud so I speedily ran over there, knocked on the door and made sure everybody was safe and OK and they was OK,” Owens said.
News4Jax spoke to the family in the damaged house off-camera. They said nobody was injured but they will be sleeping elsewhere since their house is unlivable.
And this wasn’t the only damage in the area. There are downed powerlines, trees on other houses and debris in the street.
Diane T. Jones said she feels bad her neighbor and others went through what they did. But she’s glad her home wasn’t damaged.
“It’s a relief knowing that you got to call your insurance company and let them know you have damage. Everything that was destroyed we were able to pick it up,” Jones said.
As of 6 p.m., there were still more than 28,000 customers without power in Columbia County.