A Hartman Street family was thankful Monday after a tree fellduring Sunday’s storm, missing their home and a vacant house nextdoor.

“We almost had a tragedy. The Lord was with us last night,” saidDarryl Bates, a friend of homeowner Pamela Davis, of 219 HartmanSt.

Bates estimated the oak tree fell around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. TheSunday night and early Monday morning storm brought high winds andlightning and dumped more than 4 inches of rain on Brookhaven.

Ironically, the fallen tree went largely unnoticed inside theDavis home.

“I was the only one who heard it,” said Jazmine Davis, 16, whowas in the bathroom on the end of the home near where the treefell. “It wasn’t a loud roar or anything like that.”

With the loud storm outside, Davis said the falling tree soundedlike branches brushing against the home. The downed tree wasn’tdiscovered until someone went outside to leave, she said.

“It was a blessing the way it fell,” Bates said.

Ruby Thomas and her daughter-in-law Crystal, who lived in thevacant house next door until about four years ago, were also amazedthat the tree fell between the structures.

“The Lord knows which way to land these trees,” Ruby Thomas saidas they watched city crews work to remove the tree.

The tree was on city right-of-way, and a section of HartmanStreet was closed Monday. Brookhaven Street Department foremanJohnny Ray Wilson said crews would be back at work today to finishthe job.

Neighbor Donald Sterling said a professional tree cutter wouldnot have attempted to cut the tree without first removing thelimbs. Sterling, who used to work for a private tree-cuttingservice, doubted whether the tree could be cut and land the way itfell during Sunday’s storm.

“You would have to have several years of a experience to cut thetree and throw it like that,” Sterling said.