On June 30, 2012 at approximately 11pm the top of a Poplar tree in our back yard impaled our living room.  Scott was out on the town with his ortho buddies while I was at home with Leia.  I had just laid down for bed and heard a noise that sounded like a train.  After I realized we don't live close to train tracks I bolted out of bed grabbing my iPhone and house keys, let Leia out of her crate and ran downstairs.  As we were crossing the last few steps I heard a loud crash and our house vibrated.  Leia and I went into the workout room and huddled in the corner together as the storm continued.  The lights flickered several times, then darkness settled.  I continued to hear small crashes around the home for several minutes.  I tried to call/text Scott several times but kept getting "call cannot be completed".  

After 10 minutes I began hearing an ominous dripping noise, and venturing out of my safe corner I found that water was pouring into the basement around a vent on our ceiling.  I timidly crept upstairs and turned the corner into our living room to find a dark beam-like structure in the living room and water everywhere.  I realized the shadow was part of a tree, panicked and went back downstairs to my safe spot.  My cell phone finally worked and I was able to call Scott to tell him that a tree had fallen on our house. 

Scott came home, we placed towels around to soak up the water and decided to sleep in the basement where we thought it was safe.  Leia was the only one who slept well that night and enjoyed her prized position in between our pillows.  The next morning this is what we found:

View of the storm damage from the front of our home. 

Side view of the top of the tree impaled in our house.  Surprisingly the living room windows were not damaged.  You can also see our power line hanging.

Branch impaled in our living room.  The vent on the floor is above the one in the basement where we had water coming in.

My car :(.

A branch impaled in my car.

If you follow the trunk up to the left at the fork you can see where the top of the tree came off.