Alex homeowners had a lucky escape from trees that fell on their houses

Residents of two homes on Alexandra’s 19th and 20th avenues were lucky to escape with their lives when Monday’s thunderstorms uprooted humongous trees that partially destroyed their houses.

Luck was on their side in that in both incidents, the trees collapsed on outside rooms.

Granny Edith Mabole (69) of 19th Avenue told Alex News they heard a loud bang on their roof and thought they would die. After a few seconds, they peeped outside to determine the cause of the loud bang but it was pitch black.

“We then decided to find a way to sneak out of the house, only to realise that a huge tree in the yard had fallen and its branches and leaves had covered our windows and the one door.

“My high school grandson managed to sneak out of the door and avoid tree branches and then we shouted for all the neighbours to determine if they were all safe and they echoed our calls and shouted they were safe,” Mabole said.

The two outside rooms bore the brunt of the fallen trees, and luckily one of the tenants was still at work while the other was inside the room but miraculously escaped unscathed.

“If it’s not your day to die, it’s not,” remarked Mabole, who expressed her delight that the young woman tenant had not returned home from work by the time of the storm. “If she had, maybe we would be talking a different story. We praise the Almighty for the mere fact that no injuries occurred.”

The 19th Avenue tree is said to have been planted way back in 1953.

The owner of the other home, Victor Mabunda (47) of 20th Avenue said he received a call at about 14:00 while at work in Linbro Park that a tree had fallen on their family house and that no one was injured.

He said Ward 116 councillor Adolph Marema arrived at his home promptly and told him City Parks would come and remove the tree.

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