Fayette County family grapples with clean-up after tree holding sentimental value crashes into home

DAWSON, Pa. — A house on School Road had a massive tree fall through the living room during heavy winds Tuesday night.

Clint Hribal lives at the home with his daughter and elderly mom. He said,

“I don’t think she understands the severity of it, but hopefully we can get it done quick so she doesn’t actually have to see it like this,” Hribal said.

Drone 11 captured the gaping hole in Hribal’s roof after wind sent a 100-foot-tall tree crashing through their home. Thankfully, his 82-year-old mother was reading in the back corner of the home, and his daughter wasn’t in her room.

“She called and said ‘lightning hit the house, and there’s water coming through the living room,’ and I’m thinking lightning probably didn’t hit the house, and I knew what had happened,” Hribal said.

Hribal said his mom is still shaken up by the storm and is staying with her sister while they work on cleaning up the mess. Thankfully, their family friends own a construction business and have been helping with the cleanup and repairs.

Hribal said this home has been passed down through the family for generations, but what his mom is most upset about is the tree.

“Mom and dad went to Cook Forest and got it when they were dating 60 years ago and brought it home in a little coffee cup,” Hribal said. “They planted it, it grew to be 100 feet tall, and now it’s down.”

Clint’s dad has now passed, and he’s clearing the branches of that little tree his parents brought home together decades ago.

Channel 11 meteorologists say it was likely a microburst that came through the area. Several other neighbors, just a few yards away, saw little to no damage.

Clint said it will be a lot of work, but he is just grateful his mom and daughter are okay, and no one got hurt.

“It always could be worse,” Hribal said.

To help Clint and his family, visit the GoFundMe Page linked here.

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