Family fortunate as tree crushes porch

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Jessica Harpin had the good sense to hide her family in the basement during yesterday afternoon's freakish windstorm which crashed this century-old tree into the porch of their house on South Central Ave. in Somerset. Shown standing in front of Jessica is Willow Hesemen, along with Jessica's children, from left, Johonna, Brooklynn and Isaiah. Jessica said she and the children were very glad to have escaped unharmed. Ken Shmidheiser Photo

August 6, 2010

By KEN SHMIDHESIER. CJ Managing Editor Commonwealth Journal The Commonwealth Journal Fri Aug 06, 2010, 07:00 AM EDT

Somerset —

"The tree falled down and broke our porch." That innocent observation came from four-year-old Willow Heseman, her baby brown eyes bulging as she surveyed the shattered car-cass of a century-old maple which freakish winds hurled into the entrance of her house shortly after 2 p.m. yesterday. "I heard the winds getting worse and took Willow and my kids into the basement," said Jessica Harpin, who had been baby-sitting at the 145 South Maple Street resi-dence in Somerset. "We heard a really loud crash. When the winds died down and we came out, this is what we found." Willow's family was already coping with another tragedy: Her father, Luke Heseman, was in Texas making funeral arrange-ments for his father. Jessica and her three children, Johanna, 4, Isaiah, 7, and Booklynn 9, along with Willow, were alone in the house when the windstorm rampaged through Somerset downing trees and power lines in its path. "The police and fire department got here right away," Jessica said. "They turned off our power and we are waiting for the electric company to get here and check out everything and restore our service." While the porch was heavily damaged, the rest of the house was sound and Jessica was advised they could continue to live there. “We’re just happy we are all safe,” she said.

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Family fortunate as tree crushes porch

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