ATLANTA — Power is back on in a northeast Atlanta neighborhood after a massive oak tree crashed down, hitting a woman's car, sending a man leaping off his bicycle and blocking a road.
At one point Sunday, the downed tree stretched from Inman Park, across Seminole Avenue and into the yard across the street, bringing power lines down with it.
Other than the damage to her car, Betty Tilley considers herself pretty lucky, considering how bad things could have been Sunday afternoon when the massive oak tree came crashing down.
"I am going to go buy a lottery ticket. Yeah, everyone suggested I should do that," she said.
Tilley was driving down Seminole Avenue when all of a sudden her car was surrounded by green leaves and branches. Parts of the tree had slammed right on top of her car.
"That's when I realized I have to get out of here, so I just went into that action. I couldn't get out the left side. (I) had to go over the console to get out and jump over a lot of live wires to get away," Tilley said.
All of this happened on her birthday.
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"I did feel very fortunate though. Four feet more, if I had been going a little faster, I could have been, you know, flattened," said Tilley.
Thomas Taylor is right there with her.
"The tree looked healthy, yard looked healthy, you just never know," said Taylor.
He, too, was in the tree's path as it came crashing across the road. Only he was riding a bicycle, and somehow managed to walk away with just cuts and bruises.
"I jumped over the handlebars when I got hit by the first branches and then I don’t know what made me ditch the bike but I just started running, got knocked down and another branch hit me and that’s when electrical wires hit the fence," said Taylor.
Folks who live nearby don't know what exactly caused the tree to fall but the ground is saturated from all the rain we've had recently and more rain is headed this way.
Cox Media Group
