Whittier

Giant Tree Crushes Car, Narrowly Misses Home in Whittier

“I’m looking at the roots of it and it’s like 10 feet high. It’s unbelievable"

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A large tree crushed a car and narrowly missed a house after it fell in a Whittier neighborhood Monday night.

The incident happened on the 15000 block of Lanning Drive. There were no injuries, but the felled tree scared neighbors and left the car’s owner unable to get to work.

Hector Tobon said he was eating dinner when he heard a loud noise. When he went outside, he saw that his car was totaled.

“I bought it around eight days ago and it’s a total loss. So now I don’t have a car and I don’t have any way to get to work, and I don’t know what to do. We’re going to wait for the insurance company and see how they can help us,” said Tobon, who is originally from Mexico City and has lived in Whittier for only about a year.

Mercy Alvarado was talking on the phone when she also heard a loud noise and went outside to find the tree on top of Tobon’s car.

“I’m looking at the roots of it and it’s like 10 feet high. It’s unbelievable,” she said.

Alvarado has lived in the neighborhood for about 20 years and said trees have damaged property in the neighborhood before. Nonetheless, she was still taken aback by the size of Monday’s felled tree.

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“Probably we could have lost some lives if it hit someone’s house,” she said.

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