MUSKEGON, Mich. — Alexis Castillo was driving to work around 6 a.m. Tuesday when storms hit Northeast Muskegon. Before Castillo knew it, she, with her two children ages two and four, were trapped under the weight of a fallen tree blown over by extreme winds.
Castillo said the first thing she did was yell for her children- both responded- along with another voice. Kelly Jacobs, a nearby neighbor, heard the crash.
"It happened so fast," Castillo said. "We have the best neighbors all over this road. Somebody, I wasn't even out of the car yet, and somebody was, you know, screaming, asking if we were okay."
Jacobs said she rushed to Castillo's car, pulling them out safely. No one was hurt in the incident.
"First thing they went for was the kids in the car seats," Castillo said. "They took us into their house. Fed my kids breakfast."
Jacobs said, that as a grandmother herself, taking care of the family was second nature.
"They were shivering, and I tried to get their mind off everything, and they were worried about mom," Jacobs said. "So I just fed them some food."
Jacobs said when she heard the crash, she was prepared for the worst.
"We didn't know what we were going to see at first when we got there," Jacobs said.
What Castillo said she saw was a mound of leaves, branches, metal and glass. The tree had landed in Castillo's sunroof, shattering her front windshield. Jacobs said if Castillo hadn't ducked, she would've been in trouble.
"Definitely an angel was watching her, I will say," Jacobs said. "Just blessed that she's okay and her kids."
Castillo's close call was one of many Tuesday morning- as winds up to 70 miles per hour tore through west Michigan.
Muskegon County was hit by the storms early in the morning. Many county roads were blocked off by fallen trees and powerlines.
After things calmed down, Jacobs, along with neighbor Edward Wiggers and several other members of the community, spent their day with tractors and chainsaws clearing as much of the road as they could.
"We're just trying to knock out and get the trees opened up and make it so people can get through, pretty much clearing up the roads so nobody gets hurt," Wiggers said.
"Just making sure cars can get through," Jacobs added. "For the emergency vehicles that need to get through to people that need it."
Both Jacobs and Wiggers said they are proud of how the community responded to the storms.
"There's a lot of neighbors that we all kind of back and forth, help each other out," Wiggers said. "We try staying in touch and making sure everybody's okay."
Though downed powerlines made it so some damage could not be cleaned, both said they
"We're gonna just head out and work to clear up the other roads at the other end of pill," Wiggers said. "There's elderly we know we're down that way, and we want to make sure it cleared for any emergency vehicles that need to get through."
Jacobs said in her situation, she hoped other neighbors would help out the same way.
"You don't have to know them to help out. Just go ahead and give them a hand and do your duty that needs to be done," Jacobs said.
"Pay it Forward," Wiggers said. "That's right."
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