JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Two Jacksonville brothers are now forced to leave their Northside home after a tree fell in the middle of the night.
The tree destroyed the front half of their home off Main Street.
One brother was in the back of the house and wasn't hurt, but the other was trapped, pinned by this tree. First responders had to cut a hole in the side to pry him out.
He's banged up and expected to be okay, but this disaster has left the two without a home.
"I was laying in my bed watching television, and all of a sudden, I just heard this bang and everything shake," said Brian Bolen, who lived in the home.
That bang at 1:30 a.m. made Bolen jump to his feet to see what happened to his home.
That's when he saw a tree lying across his brother's bedroom, so he started calling out for his brother Donafin.
"He answered me, but it was like he could barely answer me," said Bolen. "When they did get him out, he was safe, not severely hurt."
Bolen's brother was taken to the hospital while he searched for their pets - ultimately finding their two dogs and cat in the rubble, but he never found their birds.
Bolen pointed out that it wasn't particularly windy when the tree came down.
"The tree is green, but yet the roots of it are rotten," said Bolen. "To me, I don't understand that."
This is the second tree in a week and a half First Coast News covered falling on top of a home.
Urban Forestry Extension Agent Larry Figart says there are four red flags anyone can check on when they have a tree they're worried about.
Number one: Deadwood.
"Deadwood is probably the thing you can take care of the easiest, because it just takes someone to prune it out and get rid of it," said Figart.
The second is how the branches are attached.
"Is it a V? Or is it a U? U shaped branch attachments are a lot stronger than V shaped," said Figart.
He explained branches connected by a V have bark growing on the inside, weakening their connection.
His third tip is that you can get a sense for root rot by looking at the base of the tree.
Mushrooms growing out of the base are an indicator of root rot as well.
"If you have anything like mushrooms coming out of the base of the tree, that could indicate some kind of decay in the tree," said Figart.
Figart says the week-long rain we've had could lead to saturated soil, which could speed up the process of troublesome trees coming down.
"At the start of storm season, I always advise people to look at their trees, do a preliminary inspection of the tree," said Figart.
He says if your tree failed any of those quick tests, it's time to call a certified arborist to do an inspection.
Bolen's brother should be out of the hospital soon, and his landlord is already working on getting another trailer available for them to move into.
She also set up a GoFundMe to help the brothers. You can find that here.