MARYVILLE, Tenn. (Story courtesy of WVLT) – Overnight storms brought damaging winds to several areas of East Tennessee, including outside Maryville. Justin Williams and his family woke up to a downed tree at their Morganton Road home.
Recovery from Sunday’s storm will hit the Williams family pocketbook; the tree took out a car and the family camper.
“All of a sudden, I just hear a big thud, like an earthquake,” Williams said. “And then my daughter comes running in there. And she’s like, ‘hey, a tree fell, a huge tree. The camper’s gone. The Cadillac’s gone.’ I’m like, ‘what?’”
That camper was a staple of family trips, and Williams said he had plans for the Cadillac— it was going to go to his son.
“Then I run out,” Williams said. “And then I see Gabriel in the kitchen. And it’s like, if it would have moved just 10 or 15 feet over to the right, he might have not have been here.”
Gabriel wasn’t the only thing spared by Sunday’s storm, however. Williams said a piece of family history managed to tough out the winds and rain.
“My wife’s daddy that passed away with cancer. We found his picture, like, laying right there beside the tree,” Williams said. “That big limb was on the top of my wife’s car. And I just looked down, and there’s the picture. I got goosebumps. To be honest, I got goosebumps. It’s like He protected it.”
“I guess tree cutting service first, probably, to get the tree out,” he said. “And then work on getting my son another car for school. And hopefully get another camper so we can take the family out on trips.”
