BILLINGS – Tuesday night’s 70-mph windstorm caused significant property damage throughout the city, and some residents of the Heights mobile home park in Windsor Estates had their homes crushed by large trees.

A corner of King Arthur Drive appeared to be the worst affected, with huge uprooted trees falling on at least three homes. No injuries were reported.

Victoria Kolterer has lived in the area for over 13 years. Her house was damaged by a tree that fell into her daughter’s room.

“It was a natural event,” said Kolterer. “I felt my house shaking and the wind blowing. Then suddenly there was this loud bang and I heard glass breaking. Then the branch crashed through my roof and caused the ceilings to collapse.”

The trunk of the tree fell directly into her neighbor’s living room and destroyed it.

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“It was terrible and our whole neighborhood here was simply destroyed,” said Kolterer.

Across the street, Lottie Few was home with her mother when a tree fell through her bedroom. She said she had been in bed most of the day but got up before the storm hit. When it started to rain, she went back into her bedroom to close the window and seconds after she left the room, the tree fell through the roof and landed on the bed she had been lying in just 10 minutes earlier.

“And then a loud crash, suddenly the hallway is lit up. It’s cold, it’s wet. I felt something brush against my back. I was about to have it happen,” said Few.

Her mother, Michelle Few, only later learned how close her daughter had been to being attacked.

“At first I thought, ‘Look at our house, there’s a tree there,’ and it was only later, when everything had calmed down and I saw how shaken she was, that I realized how close she was to the event when it happened,” Few said.

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Her dog, who is deaf and blind, was under Few’s bed when the tree fell, but luckily the frame held the trunk in place.

“The bed was a real eye-catcher and somehow held up to her. After we got her out, we were all fine and I’m glad to have what I have,” Few said.

The same area had to be evacuated due to a gas leak caused by another fallen tree.

“From there you could hear it hissing loudly. It sounded like water. It sounded like someone had left a hose on,” Few said.

After a few hours, the residents were able to return home, but for these few, their usual home was no longer there.

“This is my home, and it’s not that anymore. It’s just a shell. It’s very devastating. I know it’s just material things, but it’s my home, and where do you go? Where do you go?” Kolterer said.

The tragedy has brought the neighborhood together. Kolterer received help from her neighbors after she became trapped on her porch and said others offered to prepare food when the power went out.

“I yelled, ‘Can somebody help me?’ And the man from three doors down came down and cleared my porch so I could get out of the house,” Kolterer said.

Although the timetable for cleaning up and returning to their homes has not yet been set, everyone is grateful that they escaped unscathed.

“Everyone has been so there for each other, and that’s, you know, that’s what we need right now because this is not something one person can handle alone,” Few said. “The most important thing to take away is just to be grateful for what you have.”