Sunday storms wreak havoc on Syracuse neighborhood


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SYRACUSE -- The skies along the Wasatch Front were lit with a lightning spectacle Sunday night, causing power outages in some areas, and wind damage in others. And now neighbors are left cleaning up the mess.

In the front yard of Deanna Cook's home, her Weeping Willow tree snapped in half and landed in her home.

"We've got some damage on the roof," Cook said. "We'll have to replace the section of the wall, other than that we are lucky."


(It's) the only time I can probably say I am glad I only have a hole in my house. It could have been so much worse.

–Deanna Cook


Despite a tree falling on her house, Cook has a good attitude considering the task ahead of her.

"(It's) the only time I can probably say I am glad I only have a hole in my house," she added. "It could have been so much worse."

Like many others around the valley last night, Cook woke up to the sound of thunder and the bright flashes of lightning. But before 11:30 p.m., Cook said it felt like lightning hit her house.

"There was this big boom and the house shook," she said. "I thought it had been struck by lightning. And when I looked outside, it was the tree."

The 100-year-old Weeping Willow snapped in half, sending it crashing into the home. Cook's husband was asleep only a few feet from where the tree punctured a hole through the wall.

"He sleeps right in front of that window and it came through right at the foot of his bed," Cook said. "We were lucky that the window didn't even break. It was scary."

Sunday's storm took its toll on several other trees in the Syracuse neighborhood. Cook's neighbor woke up to find his pine tree on his garage.

"Had (the tree) gone the other direction, it would have crushed my little PT Cruiser," said neighbor Dale Gardner.

A few blocks away at Gardner's son's home, the wind snapped a tree, missing the house by only inches.

"I've been in Oklahoma when a tornado was about to hit and that is what it felt like," said Daryl Gardner.

Once the Gardner's get their trees cleaned up, they said they'll be headed to the Cook's home to help with the clean-up efforts there. And Deanna Cook will need the help, since her insurance company can't make it there until Friday.

"They're not even going to come to our house and look at it until Friday," Cook said.

Along with the snapped trees in Syracuse, there were several communities who lost power, including American Fork and Tooele. Both outages affected nearly 4,000 people. Rocky Mountain Power has restored power to American Fork and is working to restore power in Tooele.

Email: spark@ksl.com

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