Dominique Montrose, 19, was lying in bed early Friday morning when a loud bang startled her.
Outside her Cabana Beach apartment, the top of an 80-foot tree came crashing down through her ceiling at about 2 a.m.
One of its branches nearly struck her head as another left a hole in her floor. White ceiling insulation and rainwater littered her bedroom as she sprinted to the living room.
“It was kind of like a horror movie,” the UF philosophy sophomore, who escaped uninjured, said. “I cheated death.”
After Tropical Storm Hermine, then still a hurricane, made landfall in Florida, 37 trees came down in Gainesville as the storm’s 30-mph winds and three inches of rain forced many to stay indoors, said Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias at a press conference Friday morning.
At the storm’s peak, 45 traffic signals were not working, Tobias said. Several continue to be down, with GPD officers directing traffic at major intersections in the city.
About 24,000 residents reported not having power during the storm, Tobias said. As of Friday morning, that number fell to about 8,700.
No injuries were reported, he said.
About 30 minutes after the Cabana Beach incident, strong winds uprooted a 50-foot tree, which struck a condominium in Mill Run off Southwest 20th Avenue, said Thomas Phillips, a resident of the complex. As the tree fell, it nearly hit nearby residents.
“People just took off running,” said Phillips, 54, who lives next door to the unit that was hit.
Yellow police tape now blocks off the tree and the damaged unit, but marks on the building show the tree’s blow.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Phillips said.
Residents of the impacted unit were evacuated, and the Red Cross provided temporary shelter, Tobias said. Phillips, however, said he spent the rest of the morning sleeping inside his van.
Elsewhere, downed trees and power lines forced officials to close parts of Williston Road and Northwest 8th Avenue, Tobias said.
On UF’s campus, a handful of fallen trees were reported on Museum Road, near Village Road and Fraternity Drive, he said.
Chip Skinner, a spokesman for the Gainesville Regional Transit System, said buses continued running Thursday, with reduced service Friday.
Full service will return Saturday for the first Gators football game of the season.
