were away overseas on a house-hunting trip. My father had flown in to watch our 5 kids for us while we were gone, and he said there was an electric storm and a super loud crash in the middle of the night. It woke him up, but he went right back to sleep. The next morning when he got up to take our son to early morning seminary, he saw that the tree had fallen across the road and was completely blocking it.

Had the massive tree fallen in the other direction, it probably would have caused serious damage to the house (it towered well above the house) and maybe crushed the guest bedroom where my dad was sleeping, or the bedroom next to it that our two little ones shared.