A 36-year-old woman was killed Thursday night in the Shannondale neighborhood of Harpers Ferry when a big oak tree broke off and fell on top of her house. The event took place in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, where Tropical Storm Debby was bringing heavy rain and strong winds.
Fire and rescue workers from Jefferson County, West Virginia; Loudoun County, Virginia; and Washington County, Maryland, along with Trooper B.S. Barker of the West Virginia State Police, went to Mad Hatter Road around 10 p.m. because someone said a building had fallen.
When the first rescuers got there, they saw that the tree had fallen through the house and pinned Stephanie Wishmyer under it. Even though people tried to save Wishmyer, she was declared dead at the scene of the accident because of her injuries.
Michael Twigg, her husband, was in a different part of the house at the time and was able to get out without getting hurt.
As first responders worked at the scene, a second tree fell and hit a fire truck from the Independent Fire Company. It also brought down power lines that hit a fire truck from Loudoun County, Virginia.
Things stopped for a while until the power lines were taken down safely. The second tree fall didn’t hurt anyone, which is good news.
