Uprooted tree crashes onto Excelsior Springs home moments after family escapes

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland, including Liberty. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.

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A massive tree fell onto an Excelsior Springs home Tuesday night, just moments after the Bishop family left their bedroom to take shelter in the basement. No one was hurt.

Brent Bishop, the city's assistant public works director, said he and his wife, Jill, were heading to the basement stairway when they heard the tree strike the house.

KSHB 41/Fabian Rosales

"It went through where we were, our bedroom — it went through the ceiling. It punctured it," Brent said. "Water just started rolling in."

"This is our bedroom," Jill said. "That's where we were lying like seconds before it hit."

KSHB 41/Fabian Rosales

When they went outside, the full scale of the damage became clear.

"I didn't even realize how big that tree was until it was lying on the ground," Brent said.

The home's air conditioning unit was destroyed beneath the tree. The full extent of structural and utility damage remains unknown until the tree can be removed.

"A lot of people are like, 'Is it in the house?' Yeah, it's in the house because they can't see it. It's all underneath the tree," Brent said. "It's going to be a long road."

KSHB 41/Fabian Rosales

Despite the destruction, Jill said the family is grateful.

"We had guardian angels looking over us," she said. "You're very grateful, but then you still look at it just going, 'my gosh, we got a lot to do'."

The storm caused widespread damage across Excelsior Springs. As a public works official, Brent said he drove through the area and found many roads blocked.

"It was pretty bad. It was hard to get around, even to show people where the debris was bad, because you would drive down one block and that's blocked. You drive, go around the corner and go somewhere else and that's blocked," Brent said.

911 received hundreds of calls throughout the night.

Ryan Dowdy, of the Excelsior Springs Police Department, described the night in simple terms.

"Crazy," Dowdy said. "The dispatch center was getting inundated with calls, 911 calls, people reporting trees down, you know, small fires from electrical power lines or transformers. So it was busy."

KSHB 41/Fabian Rosales

"Over the course of those four hours, five hours, I never once heard the 911 phone stop ringing," Dowdy said.

A tree also fell between the homes of neighbors Thalia Harris and Rick Holman, damaging both properties.

KSHB 41/Fabian Rosales

"It sounded like a freight train had come through," Thalia Harris said. "The whole house shook."

Before crews arrived with chainsaws, Harris said her family could not get out the front door.

"When I saw the damage done, I can't even think about it, or I'm gonna start crying. But yeah, it just, it broke my heart," Harris said.

Harris's next-door neighbor, Rick Holman, said it feels like a mess.

"It just feels like you want to do something and there's really nothing you can do until you get people here to do it."

KSHB 41/Fabian Rosales

Despite the damage, Holman said he and his neighbor are counting their blessings.

"We really feel blessed that it went between our house and the neighbors because it could have taken out either one of our houses," Holman said.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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