Blame it on the rain: Tree falls, traps Howland family
YOUNGSTOWN — Mary Ripple of Howland woke up to the sound of her bedroom ceiling of her mobile home leaking from this morning’s rain.
She contacted her dad shortly after 10:30 a.m. to talk about repairs when a tree, which was 4 feet in diameter, fell on her home at 2075 Weir Road NE.
“All of a sudden, the ceiling just started to shake,” she said.
The ceiling in her bedroom and in the kitchen came down and the tree’s branches trapped Ripple, her nephew, her 26-year-old son and his girlfriend for up to about 45 minutes.
“Luckily we’re all OK,” she said.
The family also had a dog and cat that were uninjured from the mayhem.
The mobile home, of which Ripple has lived in for two years, was damaged beyond all repair. The American Red Cross has placed them in a motel for the next three days.
“This is going to continue to happen with the more rain we get,” she said.
The storm brought nearly 1.5 inches of rain, as of late Saturday evening, that caused power outages, other trees to fall over, and road flooding in the Mahoning Valley.
June 2015 now ranks as the third-wettest June in history for the Youngstown area, according to the National Weather Service.
For the complete story, read Sunday's Vindicator and Vindy.com