Tree splits Danville mobile home

A tree crushed a mobile home Sunday evening on Nelson Avenue after a line of severe thunderstorms plowed through the area.

Neighbors said John Slough, who was out of town Sunday, lives in the trailer in the backyard of a house on the 100 block of Nelson Avenue. No one was in the trailer when the tree fell and no one was injured. Neighbors had contacted Slough about the damage.

Earlene Tate, who lives in the house sharing the property with Slough’s trailer, said wind blew the tree down at about 5:30 p.m., but no one heard it.

“I don’t know why we didn’t hear it,” said Tate, who was at a neighbor’s house two doors down at the time.

Next-door neighbor J.B. Worsham had recently moved his son’s 2000 Ford Ranger out of his driveway near the trailer — directly into the tree’s path. The black SUV was also stuck under the tree. Worsham estimated the tree’s age to be nearly 70 years old.

“It’s a good thing (John) was out of town,” Worsham said. “If he’d have been in the bathroom he wouldn’t be with us today. Cut that trailer right in half.”

Worsham said Slough’s family lived in Richmond, and that the trailer was a temporary residence.

Danville was under a brief tornado warning Sunday evening, but Anita Silverman of the National Weather Service in Blacksburg said there were no reported tornados in the area. The NWS received multiple reports of trees down and measured a peak wind gust at 43 mph at the Danville Regional Airport.

Contact Amos at or (434) 791-7983.