Saved From a Falling Oak, Mobile Woman Plans a ‘God’ Table From the Tree Isaias Toppled

MOBILE, Ala. — Sandra Wilson heard the crash before she understood what it was. A loud boom shook the night as Hurricane Isaias raked Mobile, and her dog, Tiger, started barking. Five minutes earlier, the 75-year-old Mobile woman said, she had been on the verge of walking out into the storm, and she believes that if she had, she would have been standing right where an old oak tree came down.

Instead, the diseased oak fell across the front yard of her home on Sage Avenue, narrowly missing her car and completely blocking her driveway. For days afterward, Wilson could not get her vehicle out. On Tuesday morning, a crew of volunteers from Mobile Baptist Disaster Relief showed up with chainsaws, cut the tree apart and cleared the drive at no cost to her.

Now Wilson, a self-described “feisty redhead” with a fondness for anything red and a cowgirl hat to match, has plans for what is left of the tree. She intends to keep the biggest piece of the trunk and turn it into a table that will remind her, every time she sits down, of the night she believes she was spared.

‘Something pushed me back seven times’

Wilson said that as the storm intensified she kept feeling the need to go outside and see what was happening. She thought the noise she was hearing was her arbor breaking apart. Each time she started toward the door, she said, something held her back.

“I’m telling you God’s good because I thought it was my arbor that was going,” Wilson said. “I just kept feeling something pushed me back seven times. I said, okay, that’s God’s number. He’s trying to tell me something. So I said, okay, I’m not going out.”

About five minutes later, a neighbor told her the oak had come down. Looking at where it landed, Wilson is convinced she would have been beneath it.

“I would have been right up underneath it,” she said. “I got pushed back in my house by a force.”

For Wilson, there is no mystery about who was watching over her that night. She credits God, plainly and without hesitation.

Trapped at home after the storm

Being safe did not solve every problem. With the trunk and limbs sprawled across her driveway, Wilson could not leave home by car, a serious hardship in the days after a hurricane, when residents need to reach stores, pharmacies, gas stations and family members, and when power outages can make staying home uncomfortable or unsafe.

Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, on the night of Friday, Oct. 9, as a Category 2 storm, and its strongest winds swept across Mobile and Baldwin counties as it moved inland. Fallen trees were among the most common forms of damage across the region, knocking down power lines, blocking roads and landing on homes and cars. At the peak of the outages, more than 300,000 Alabama utility customers were without electricity.

Large trees are especially dangerous during hurricanes. Saturated soil loosens root systems, and trees that are already weakened by disease or decay, like the oak in Wilson’s yard, are more likely to snap or uproot when gusts arrive. Arborists generally advise homeowners to have older trees near houses, driveways and power lines inspected before storm season, because a tree that looks sturdy can be hollow or rotting inside.

Volunteers arrive with chainsaws and prayer

Help came after Wilson received a phone call Monday afternoon telling her a crew was on the way. By the time she noticed the volunteers on Tuesday, they were already at work cutting the oak into pieces and hauling the debris clear of her driveway.

The work was done free of charge. But Wilson said the way the volunteers treated her mattered as much as the cleanup itself.

“I appreciate everything they did,” Wilson said. “And, you know, they had prayer with me. It was just awesome.”

Baptist disaster relief crews are a familiar sight after hurricanes and tornadoes across the South. The volunteers are part of the broader Southern Baptist Disaster Relief network, which trains church members in chainsaw work, debris removal, flood cleanup, mass feeding and other recovery tasks and sends them into communities after storms. Teams typically work at no cost to homeowners, often prioritizing older residents, people with disabilities and others who cannot clear damage on their own or afford to hire a contractor. Many crews also offer to pray with the families they serve, as the volunteers did with Wilson.

A tree trunk turned into a reminder

Most homeowners would be happy to see a fallen tree hauled to the curb and forgotten. Wilson wants to keep part of hers.

She is saving the largest section of the oak’s trunk and plans to make it into a table, with a word carved into the top.

“The guy said he would engrave God on my top of the tree trunk,” Wilson said. “And I’m going to put glycerin over it where it’ll be like a table and put little chairs around it where I can always remember that God saved me from that tree falling on me.”

The piece of wood that frightened her the night of the storm will become a place to sit and reflect. To Wilson, the story of Isaias is not about what the hurricane took. It is about what she believes she was allowed to keep: her home, her life and her faith.

She has promised to show off the table once it is finished.

‘Stay prayed up’

With her bright red outfits, matching cowgirl hat and upbeat attitude, Wilson has become one of the more memorable faces of Mobile’s recovery from Hurricane Isaias. Asked how she stays so young at heart and so positive, she kept her answer short.

“Just keep healthy, eat healthy, stay prayed up, live for God,” she said.

Her driveway is clear again, and the cowgirl hat is not going anywhere.

Getting help with fallen trees after Isaias

Many residents across Mobile and Baldwin counties are still dealing with trees on homes, fences and driveways. A few things to keep in mind:

• Stay away from downed lines. Treat every fallen power line as live, and report it to your utility. Do not cut a tree that is tangled in lines.
• Ask about volunteer help. Faith-based disaster relief teams and other volunteer groups often clear trees for older residents and others who cannot do it themselves. Calling 2-1-1 can connect residents with local recovery resources.
• Document damage first. Take photos of the tree and any damage to your home or vehicle before cleanup begins, and contact your insurance company.
• Watch out for scams. Be cautious of door-to-door tree crews demanding large payments up front. Ask for proof of insurance and get written estimates.
• Follow debris rules. Separate vegetative debris from construction debris and place it at the curb without blocking roads, drains or fire hydrants, following your city or county’s pickup guidelines.

For Wilson, the cleanup is done. The rest, she says, is gratitude.