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Less than 24 hours after a brief but powerful thunderstorm tore through Niles Township Monday afternoon, residents of the Fair Oaks neighborhood are providing frightening accounts of their experience the moment the storm hit.

Anna Coffinger, who lives at 2254 E. Fair Oaks, had just put her 16-month-old grandson down for a nap when the rain began to fall. She said she had a bad feeling as she listened to the thunder and wind pick up outside the home she has lived in for the past six years.

“I heard a cracking sound and then a hellacious boom that shook the whole house,” she said, adding that two trees had fallen onto the roof of the home.

Coffinger picked up her grandson and attempted to exit the home, only to find a tree blocking their way out the front door. A neighbor eventually helped pull back the branches enough so they could get outside.

Both were unharmed.

“We are a little shook up, but we are OK,” Coffinger said. “I don’t even care about all this [damage]. I’m just thankful Zayden (grandson) and I are OK.”

Tricia Gouin, who lives next door to Coffinger at 1216 N. Fair Oaks, said she, her two sons and a friend were at home when a tree fell through the front of their house.

Gouin said they were able to get to the basement before the tree fell, which caused a portion of the ceiling to collapse on the stairway they had just gone down.

With the stairway blocked, the four were forced to escape through a basement window when the storm passed.

“I was just trying to keep them calm and then I didn’t actually break down until I got to the neighbors’ and I bawled my eyes out,” Gouin said.

To make matters worse, Gouin said her daughter had just left to take driver’s education training prior to the storm hitting.

“I had no idea where she was for about an hour,” Gouin said. “I finally got a hold of the instructor and found out they had pulled into a gas station and waited.

“It is really sad to come down the street this morning and see all of the homes destroyed, but I am just so thankful because nobody was hurt. It is amazing.”

Lynn Mickiewicz, who lives across the street from Gouin at 1219 N. Fair Oaks, said she was at home with her two teenage sons when the storm hit. A tree fell on their car and another tree sliced off the roof and siding on the west side of their home.

Mickiewicz said she and her sons sheltered in the bathroom while it was going on.

“It sounded like a train. The house started shaking and we just heard things falling over,” Mickiewicz said. “Finally when the noise stopped I looked out of the front window and couldn’t even see the street or anything around me because there were so many trees down all over the house. We are just very fortunate that we are OK.”

Coffinger, Gouin and Mickiewicz all said several neighbors provided help immediately after the storm.

“Neighbors we haven’t even met yet were down here, coming in the houses and getting help — it is amazing how many people have come through and showed up to help,” Mickiewicz said.

“I just love the people in our neighborhood,” Gouin said. “You just don’t find that everywhere. The people that have come to help. It is just amazing.”

Residents in the Fair Oaks neighborhood and much of nearby Fulkerson Park remained without power Tuesday morning.

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