Free Republic

ZEPHYRHILLS - The lake at Zephyr Park was like glass early Monday evening as 63-year-old Nancy Booth and her two adult children sat at a picnic table beneath a great oak tree. No rain, no wind, mostly clear. Then, witnesses heard a horrible crack. The oak at the water's edge was splitting. Booth's children scampered out of the way, but one of the huge falling limbs pinned their mother to bench where she sat. Booth's daughter, Caloie, ran to a passing van yelling for help. The driver, 39-year-old Gary Killeen, having seen the tree fall, jumped out of the van...

Brandi Timmons decided to sleep downstairs with her young children Sunday night, just in case one of them might wake up, frightened, from the rain pounding on the windows. It was a decision that saved her life, but with heart-wrenching consequences. Her husband and high school sweetheart, Ed, died early Monday morning when a huge poplar tree crashed through the roof of their Decatur home, pinning him in the couple's bed upstairs. Timmons' wife and their two children, 3-year-old Max and 7-year-old Alley, were not injured. Neighbors heard an ear-splitting crack around 3:30 a.m. Then came a giant thud as...