‘I was praying to myself’: Louisville woman escapes death after tree fell on her home

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A Louisville woman said she barely made it out of her house alive after a tree fell on it during Friday night’s storm.

Nadiya Raheem said she was relaxing at home Friday night when weather conditions started to get worse.

“I was praying to myself, ‘Lord let me get out of here to get me some help,’” Raheem said.

Raheem didn’t want to be on camera but said prayers and quick thinking are what kept her alive late Friday night after mother nature showed her wrath and sent a tree crashing into her house close to the UofL campus.

“I was laying on my couch and watching tv,” Raheem said. ”It was raining and a bolt of lightning struck a tree and it fell in my living room and came through my window. I was trapped in my living room.”

Raheem said the tree landed on her right leg and pinned her to the couch. The tree is so big that it blocked the path of both Creel and 5th streets and crushed three cars on it’s way to hit her house.

“It was scary,” Raheem said. “It was like something in a movie. I was terrified.”

She said she called 911 and then literally crawled her way to safety so first responders could rescue her.

“I had to try to roll up from underneath the tree because I was pushed up in-between the tree,” Raheem said. “And the couch had me pinned down so I had to roll up from under there and crawl to my backdoor because I could not get out my front door because it was covered in tree limbs.”

The incident left Raheem wearing a brace on her fractured leg.

A story of survival she felt couldn’t have happened without a higher power.

“I’m totally grateful God spared me at the end of the day,” Raheem said. “He, uh, that’s all I’m glad for is that I’m alive and here and God, I guess it’s just nothing but God.”

Raheem said she was told that her house isn’t safe to stay in.

The Red Cross gave her a place to stay until Monday but after that she said she doesn’t know where she will go.

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