Fallen tree nearly crushed two homes due to severe weather

Severe weather with winds up to 80 miles per hour impacted many residence in Rayne.

Phil Bellard, a resident of Rayne, was at his mother’s house when severe weather caused a tree in their yard to fall. Bellard heard loud noises, and received a weather alert indicating to take shelter due to a possible tornado. Bellard says that’s when he thought to move his car.

“ Well we saw the weather getting bad and I decided to move my car so it wouldn’t get damaged by the tree and I moved it, there was a lot of noises going on," Bellard said. "When I moved my truck down the road, the neighbor called me and said the tree just fell, I had just missed it.”

Bellard says his mom was in the house when the tree fell down.

“She’s tough, she’s 72 years old, her name is Bernadine Thibodaux," Bellard said. "She was in the house, when I called her she said she was fine.”

Even though the tree did not fall directly on the Bellard’s family home, the tree damaged other belongings.

“My trailer that got crushed, I have some oxygen tanks, and saline bottles on the side," Bellard said. "I don’t know if the wind was blowing them over and that’s what I heard hitting the ground, but I know it snapped the telephone poles next-door.”

Another resident that lives next door to Bellard says she was trapped in her driveway after the tree fell, which caused a phone line to collapse in her driveway. The resident says she was out of power for more than 15 hours.

Phil says his power is back on and he’s currently working to have the tree removed from his mother's yard.