NAUGATUCK — Alice Clark, 95, awoke to what sounded like an airplane hitting her house just after midnight Monday.
A large oak tree toppled onto her roof, splitting her home of 50 years at 402 Hillside Ave. in Naugatuck in half.
“That was a shock, I’ll tell you,” Alice Clark said with a chuckle later in the morning. “I could hardly see because of the plaster and everything coming down. The attic came down into the living room.”
Her son, Wilson Clark, was using the bathroom when a branch about 10 inches in diameter crashed through the ceiling, just inches from where he was standing. Alice Clark was in her bedroom, which was the only room not damaged by the tree.
Neither of the home’s residents was injured. They found their two cats hiding in a closet once the sun came up.
“She just got told to go to Mohegan Sun this afternoon and play some slots if she’s that lucky,” Alice Clark’s other son, Richard Clark, said Monday morning.
The Clarks stayed up the rest of the night at their neighbor’s house across the street.
The Clarks were waiting for an insurance adjuster to assess the damage Monday morning and planned to stay in a hotel until their home could be rebuilt.
