It’s been almost one week since tornadoes tore through Northeast Ohio, and crews have been working to restore power and clean up damage. However, the clean-up and recovery process has not been as simple for some people as they would like.
85-year-old Olivia Lynch has lived in Cleveland for over 30 years and says she has never seen a storm like the one that hit the area Tuesday.
“I was getting ready to let the window down, and I fell between the bed and the dresser. I heard something cracking and that’s all I remember; I think I passed out,” Lynch said.
Lynch says the noise was coming from a tree falling from three houses over. Her tenant, Yolanda Isom, was rushing to the basement before the three hit their home.
As I was going through my kitchen, the kitchen window shattered which made me run even faster. We sat in the basement for 15 minutes, and then when we came back up, we saw this massive tree come over three yards,” said Isom.
The tree shattered four windows in their house, caused a power outage in two homes, blocked off one of their exits and fell on top of Isom’s car totaling it.
“I had to throw away my entire refrigerator and freezer and I work in Brooklyn and live in Cleveland. So, not having a car, I can’t get to work,” Isom said.
Over the last few days, they spoke with several tree removal companies attempting to get the tree removed. Lynch says most companies say their equipment is too small.
“They can't get the tree moved until the illuminating company comes and grounds the wires because there's supposedly three live wires back there that they have to ground before a tree company can even do anything with it,” Isom said.
Isom says they are not sure when the wires will be grounded, and to speed up the process, they reached out to the city for help.
“The house that the tree belongs to is two houses over, and it's an abandoned house. So, the city said they can't do anything because it's not a city tree; it's a private owner's tree," Isom explained.
Isom says since the home is privately owned the owners would be responsible for the bill to remove the tree.
"I'm living by faith right now, because I feel like that's, the only way I'm going to make it. If not, I'm going to go crazy trying to find this person myself and get them to do what they need to do so the process can get moving,” Isom said.
