Henrico, Va. (WTVR)—A Mechanicsville mother has a narrow escape from a falling tree.
Amy Harvey thought it was just another summer storm. She was headed into Mechanicsville to get a few things for her four-year-old twins.
She said, thankfully, she had dropped off the twins, so they never experienced the seconds of uncertainty that the falling tree brought.
"Two miles and two minutes down the road, it all changed," said Harvey. "I don't know how I wasn't severely injured."
A trip into town turned into a tornadic tale of luck and survival for Harvey and her aunt Linda Tucker. "I didn't hear anything,” she said. “All I know is we were hit."
Harvey and her aunt were heading north on Beattie Mill Road when a family member called to tell them it was getting really bad and to come back. They made a U-turn in a driveway and started going south.
Suddenly a tree snapped like a toothpick and fell onto her Ford 250 truck.
The base of the tree was three-feet wide and the part that fell was about a foot-and-a-half in diameter. "I don't know how we walked away," Harvey said. Just a few cuts and scratches in fact, that's all Harvey had to show for her brush with death.
Of course, that's not counting the huge dents and dings in her truck, which her insurance company, she believes, will most likely have to total after they take a look at bowing cab doors and extensive damage under the hood.
But she says the truck is why she's alive: "American-made and the head cage saved us, I think, because the roof and windshield were lying on top of the steering wheel," Harvey said.
Harvey's story is one of a few in Mechanicsville Saturday. No serious injuries were reported in that area, despite a tornado with a 7.4 mile path length.
