Catonsville Residents Near Fallen Trees are Grateful Damage Wasn't Worse

For dozens of families whose homes were damaged or nearly damaged by fallen trees, many chose to look on the bright side: no one was injured.

Catonsville residents awoke Sunday morning to debris everywhere, from tree limbs to branches to uprooted trees around town.

On North Beaumont Avenue, Susan Neale was counting her blessings that the two trees that fell on her house only hit the garage. She was also glad the trees didn't fall onto her neighbors' yard.

"It was a harrowing night, but we were lucky," she said Sunday afternoon, as she worked to clean up the property.

The couple had spent the night trying to keep their basement from flooding and thought they were through the worst of it when the trees came crashing down.

The sound, Neale said, was not a sudden crash but more of a gradual one.

"The foliage cushioned it a little bit," she said.

Kirsten Nilsen and her family on South Prospect Avenue were awake when two trees sawed off the roof of their porch at 3 a.m.

The three children were awake while their father Torbjorn was entertaining them to distract them from the storm. But then, the trees fell and the porch roof was completely crushed off the front of their home.

"It was an almighty roar," she said. "It was something."

The family spent the rest of the night in the basement. When dawn came and the winds died down, friends and family came by with chain saws to help clear away parts of the tree.

Enough of the tree has been removed for the family to get out the front door, but it still has be cut up and hauled away.

"We were pretty shaken, but also most likely really lucky," she said.

Along Frederick Road near Dutton Avenue, many residents heard the giant tree crash Sunday around 12:30 a.m., but they also heard the sound of a transformer explosion.

Dutton Avenue resident Maria Czajkowski said she was grateful a tree didn't hit her house, as ones have come close in the past.

"These trees are 150 feet tall," she said.