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Family thankful to be alive after high winds blow tree onto Wakefield home

Posted at 8:43 PM, Jun 21, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-21 23:26:48-04

WAKEFIELD, Va. - A local family is thankful for their lives after they say heavy winds blew a tree on top of their home, crushing it.

It happened around 7 p.m. Tuesday. Brooke Shaw says she was outside her home on South St. in Wakefield when high winds came out of nowhere.

Shaw says her boyfriend, Wayne Banks, came outside to help her put away a tent when a tree near the home began to fall.

“He told me, 'Babe move out the way!'" she recalled. “I just fell and laid there and I was like, ‘Lord, this is it'.”

But she and Banks survived with only a few scratches. However, the tree fell on top of her home, caving in the roof of her son's bedroom where he was asleep.

“I looked up and I can see the ceiling collapse and the only thing I can do is move my head," said Darryl Haskett, 30.

That's when Haskett says debris and parts of the tree pinned him to his bed.

“By all the means necessary I had to get out, so I just used all the strength in my body," said Haskett.

Meanwhile, Shaw says she feared the worst.

“I couldn’t see nothing. I couldn’t hear him," she says.

Haskett tells News 3 a neighbor helped pull him out of the crushed home with only a few scratches and a swollen leg, but while the family is fine, the home and several cars took a lot of damage.

“It’s like we’re starting over. We don’t have anything," said Banks.

Now the community is coming together with relatives starting a GoFundMe page to help these three get back on their feet.

Shaw, Banks and Haskett say they're staying with family and have a little money from Red Cross while they figure out their next move. Shaw tells News 3 she's just happy everyone is okay.

“Right now we don’t even have nowhere to call home, but hopefully we will…real soon," Shaw said tearfully.