‘I would have been burying my son’: Homeowner rescues family members after tree hits home
By Tori Cooper
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ATLANTA (WGCL) — A massive tree nearly wiped out an entire family in southwest Atlanta Monday morning.
Jacqueline Slaton said she heard a loud crack inside her family home that she says could have cracked her heart in half.
“It poked up everything so I’m happy my son was not here and that he was at work, because if he would have been here I would have been burying my son,” Slaton said.
Seconds after she heard the loud crack her roof caved in, a tree outside split her house into two when it came down, leaving a massive hole in the center of their home.
She said the tree also landed just inches away from another piece of her own family tree.
“I was getting ready to come out and eat breakfast,” Jacqueline’s mother Birtha Slaton said.
Jacqueline said her mother Birtha was also still inside just waking up to a stormy morning, looking out of her window when the tree came down.
“If I would have been in my bed, I wouldn’t be here because it fell right on my bed,” Birtha said.
“So to get her out I had to push the door out and push some of that stuff out of the way. She was so little so I said pull her through like this and to get her out,” Jacqueline said.
The tree tore up nearly all of their family roots that were living beneath their roof.
The tree left behind a costly clean up, but the branches to the Slaton’s own family tree is still strongly intact.
“So I’m just lucky,” Birtha said.
“I’m just thankful all of them are alive,” Jacqueline said.
The Slaton’s are now leaning on the Red Cross and working with their insurance company to repair their home.
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