By John Howell Sr.

The inevitable buzzing of chain saws dominated the heart of Batesville Thursday in the aftermath of early Wednesday storm winds that toppled trees onto homes.

Workers from TC’s Tree Service scurried about the yard of the Bates Street home of Jimmy and Bessie McCloud as one sawed through the oak that fell across a back bedroom, cutting into manageable pieces the great oak that had shaded the back yard two days before.

McCloud, a Batesville police Department captain, said that they had been “fortunate,” — asleep in an unaffected front bedroom when the tree came crashing through.

“Fortunate” was heard repeatedly during visits to four homes in the city severely damaged by falling trees. Around the corner on Church Street, Cindy Stevens said that her children were asleep in their beds when the big oak crashed through the center of the old Graves family home where they had lived for little more than a month.

Two-year-old Kylie later told her mother, “’A voice told me to stay in my bed or I might get hurt,’” she told her mother afterwards. If she had left her bed she might have been struck by a main hall ceiling fan and housing that fell minutes later after having been wrested loose by the initial impact, her mother said.

On Thursday morning, Wade Aldridge prepared to position a crane next to the Stevens home to lift the tree. Only then can a determination be made about the feasibility of restoring the 100-year-old structure.

A few doors down and across the street, Dennis Mangrum and Jamie Smith watched as Tullos Tree Service workers cut another oak into manageable pieces. The same gust of wind had pushed another large oak onto the Mangrum home, destroying a front sectionthat had been constructed in 1929 as the original home, Mangrum said. A second section was added at the rear of the home in 1976 and was undamaged. The homeowner said that structural damage probably made the older home’s restoration impractical.

“Fortunate” had also been heard on Wednesday morning when Dennis and Peggy Mangrum surveyed the wreckage in the storm’s immediate aftermath. “That’s the bedroom where the children and grandchildren slept,” Peggy Mangrum said.

Robbie Wheeler called grandsons Jason Ware and Dusty Dettor early Wednesday and told them she thought a falling limb had hit her East Street home, Dettor said Thursday morning as Parrish Donahue and his employees cut away yet another oak tree toppled by the wind.

Dettor and Ware, who live nearby, arrived to find the whole tree leaning against the bedroom where their grandmother sleeps. The force of its impact had splintered the crown ridge, but the structure had withstood crushing. Dettor said the close proximity of the tree to the house may have kept it from gaining more momentum during its fall. Dettor also said that the lumber used during its construction over 50 years ago may have been another factor in hold up the tree, uprooted and leaning heavily against the home.

Dettor and Ware were also forced to deal with storm damage east of town in the Mt. Olivet community where they rent pasture for cattle, Dettor said. They had worked until dark Wednesday restringing fences destroyed by falling trees.