Family escapes through window after tree crashes into home

STATESVILLE, N.C. — A family of six has been displaced after a tree crashed through their mobile home in Statesville.
 
Jason Shuford, 12, was sound asleep at 6 a.m. Friday when an enormous tree came crashing through the roof.

“The only thing I saw when I woke up was light, so I thought I was in heaven,” he said.

His mother, Tilisa Shuford, was watching TV in another room.

"We could hear the crackling like the ice just falling off the trees. It was just whole loud.It went through the whole trailer. Everything was just breaking and falling and all I could do is call my kids' names. I didn't know where they were in the house at the time," she said.
 
Tilisa said that tree hung over her other son's bedroom. Worried about the storm, she woke him up last night and had him sleep on the couch. It was a decision that may have saved the 12-year-old's life.
 
One of the biggest branches crashed through his bedroom ceiling, landing right on his bed.
 
Robert Shuford is still in shock, and can't help but think what might have happened.
 
"If you wouldn't have woke me up then it would have hit my face and my chest," he said.
 
The entire family -- six in all, including a 3-month-old baby -- had to escape through a window, because the tree blocked the front door.
 
Molisa Shuford, the mother of the 3-month-old, said her baby was asleep in another room. When the tree came crashing down, she didn't know if he survived.
 
"When I got to him, he was screaming. He was crying, but he was OK. He didn't have a scratch on him. I just held him and hugged him. I just wanted to cry," she said
 
Tilisa Shuford said she's talked to her landlord before about cutting down branches.
 
"We had been complaining about limbs falling on stuff," she said.
 
The landlord showed up to the mobile home, and we asked him about those concerned. He refused to speak with us and drove away.
 
The American Red Cross is now helping the family.

WSOC