O'FALLON, Mo. — A St. Charles County woman experienced a close call during Saturday's powerful storm. Heavy rain and strong winds caused a tree to fall on her home.
"It's a big tree. It's very big," Nancy Mehlhose said.
As rain and thunderstorms blew through the area, behind it came strong winds.
"The saturation point has been pretty bad with all the rain we've had," she said.
Mehlhose had quite the scare.
"I jumped. I screeched. I said oh my gosh," she told 5 On Your Side. "I was in my kitchen which is right there off the carport and I looked out the window and I saw the tree."
Mehlhose said it was around 3:15 p.m. when out nowhere gusty winds blew through O'Fallon. The winds were so strong it uprooted a massive tree, causing it to fall on her home and narrowly miss her car.
"It was horrible. It was the most screeching. It made a loud burst," she said.
The tree landed on the corner of her home over her carport, but fortunately, it spared the rest of her house.
"It's just the destruction that I couldn't think could've happened with that wind and this healthy tree," she said.
While the tree only did a little damage to her home, Mehlhose said things could've been a lot worse.
"It didn't do any structural damage on the inside that I could see," she said. "I'm very happy because I know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that man upstairs."
For that, Mehlhose said she's thankful.
"We could've been taken out and it could've just shot the other way and went through the house," she said.
Crews plan to take down the tree Sunday morning.