PERRYSBURG, Ohio — Many chose to stay inside, away from the strong winds on Saturday, just to play it stay safe. Unfortunately for one Perrysburg family that wasn't enough.
The Ramirez family has lived on Apex Lane in Perrysburg Heights family for decades and had quite a shock when a large tree fell onto their house while they were inside.
"It was a big, big thud crash," said Janie Ramirez, who lives there with her husband and two sons.
"I thought it was an earthquake," said Aidenn Ramirez, Janie's grandson.
Janie Ramirez woke up early and was watching the news and the reports of storm damage in Kentucky from high winds, when she says she was frightened by a noise.
"I was watching the disaster in Kentucky and those poor people," she said, "and all of a sudden I hear this noise that sounds like a tornado."
Ricardo Ramirez was ordering pizza for everyone, when his son, who was playing Xbox next to him, mentioned how lucky they were that they weren't seeing what was happening in Kentucky. That changed in the next minute.
"He was like dad, thank god there's no power outages here," said Ricardo Ramirez. "And sure enough it got real dark because when the tree started to fall, you could see the shadow and I hopped off the couch to cover him up."
The tree landed right in the middle of the roof, breaking a hole into the living room and bathroom.
The family has lived in this home for over 20 years and in the neighborhood for over 50 years. Janie Ramirez says she never thought the tree would come down.
"It looked healthy you know," she added, "and it would bloom every year and we always use it as shade but never expected it to come up from the roots."
Despite the hit, the house and the family are still standing strong.
"Communication with everyone telling them we're fine," said Pedro Ramirez, Janie's son. "We're staying at my grandma's right now so we're just chilling and trying to calm down and ease the nerves."
The gas company came out to shut off the gas and Toledo Edison was expected to come down and shut power to some live wires. The family says it's hard to see this happen to the home they all grew up in but they're more glad that no one was hurt.
"We're feeling good, as long as everyone made it out alright that's fine," said Ricardo. "It's just going to be hard, right around Christmas-time and we have a roof to fix."
Luckily, most of their family also lives in the neighborhood so they have them to help in the days to come.
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