Article content

A Shrewsbury couple are lucky after surviving a large tree falling on their off-road vehicle during a sudden, severe storm in the Rondeau Bay area.

Article content

Henry Boswell, 53, and his girlfriend Carlita Melo, 45, were turning south from the New Scotland Line onto Kent Bridge Road on Monday afternoon when a large tree fell on them.

The couple owes their lives to the fact that the cab roof of a Kubota side-by-side quad bike saved their lives.

“I am very blessed and very grateful to be here today,” Melo said in an interview with The Chatham Daily News on Wednesday.

“It was a miracle,” she added. “It was like someone was watching over us.”

Boswell said it was sunny when they left Shrewsbury to check out a high stand near Rondeau Bay, but when they turned onto Kent Bridge Road, “all hell broke loose” and it started pouring with rain.

“Boom, the wind came up,” he said and a small branch fell in front of the ATV.

Boswell tried to get out and drive away because a car was coming towards him, but Melo told him to stay inside.

Article content

“We stopped for two seconds and boom, it was right in front of us,” he said.

Melo described how it seemed foggy. Then, “suddenly, we went under with the taxi.”

She said the impact pushed her down in the vehicle. They had to climb out the back window, Boswell said.

Shards of glass from the SUV’s cab flew everywhere when the tree landed on it, he said.

“It was like an explosion,” he said.

“We’re still picking glass off our skin,” Melo said Wednesday. “It was a pretty bad situation.”

Boswell said there was still glass on his skin that felt like fiberglass insulation.

Melo said they did not feel the pain from the impact until Tuesday because they were still in shock.

“It’s just incredible how the Kubota saved our lives,” Boswell said.

Article content

Chatham-Kent police said there were no injuries from the tree falling on the ATV and that work crews removed the trees and repaired downed power lines.

Ken Bell was under an awning at his house in Shrewsbury on Monday when the storm passed through.

“Then the wind got really, really strong for about thirty seconds or almost a minute.”

Bell said the rain changed from drops to an “almost white mist.” “It was just weird.”

When the storm passed, Bell received a text message about the damage in the Rondeau Provincial Park area and decided to ride his bike there to check it out, and came across the fallen tree lying next to the ATV Boswell and Melo were riding in.

He spoke to the couple on the scene and learned that they were not injured.

Article content

Jim Stirling arrived at his home on Kent Bridge Road Monday afternoon before several large trees, including the one that hit Boswell and Melo, were blown across the road on both sides of his property.

He returned from Blenheim and “it was pouring with rain.”

He was locking up a barn on his property and “the wind started blowing as hard as it could… It was roaring pretty loudly,” he said.

Stirling heard the crash of several trees falling on Kent Bridge Road, but only a few branches fell from the trees on his property.

However, the grill had to be saved.

Stirling’s wife, Cathy, said they usually chain the grill to the porch “because it’s already windy down here.”

But on Monday, the grill was “already on the way when I got outside because we forgot to chain it up,” she said.

Cathy secured it again and Jim joked, “We had to put a rope around the grill to keep it from slipping.”

[email protected]

Article content