18 days after Hurricane Beryl ripped through the Houston area, the Medeiros family were trying to figure out their next steps.
A large 100-year-old oak tree fell on their Kingwood home, planted there for several days.
“It collapsed the roof collapsed the second floor into the first,” Nathan Medeiros said. “It’s unlivable.”
For the first few days, Nathan, his wife, and their two boys stayed across the street with a neighbor.
Due to the precarious positioning of the tree, the Medeiros were unable to get most of their belongings.
Medeiros said it took several days before the landlord, Invitation Homes, sent out a crew.
KPRC 2 reached out to Invitation Homes but did not hear back as of this publishing.
“It was two guys and a chainsaw, like, no equipment,” Medeiros said. “This is a 30,000-pound tree. This is a massive tree. It was just two guys in a chainsaw, and they looked at it and shook their head and said, ‘no, we’re we can’t do this.’”
Ultimately, large parts of the tree were removed from the Medeiros home, but they were no longer in Kingwood, or even Texas.
“We have family in another state. And so, we’ve, we moved out and we’re staying with them until insurance can reimburse us,” he said.
The father of two said living in a hotel was no longer practical.
“We just moved into Kingwood, in summer 2023. So, we’ve only been there a year, and, you know, it’s an amazing community, Medeiros said. “[They’re] amazing people. If it weren’t for the neighbors, all around there, you know, we wouldn’t know what to do.”
The community now trying to get the home secure.
“Right here, sitting on the stairs,” said neighbor Lindsay Gray as she points out concerning areas to KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun. “That piece has fallen, and the floor has caved in more.”
The home is catty-cornered from Elm Grove Elementary School.
“All the kids walk in the grass,” Gray said. “I mean, they walk in our yard, you know, that’s because they don’t have to walk on the street, but they walk through this yard. And, I mean, I’m just saying one day, one day, kids are going to get curious, and they’re going to try and go in the house.”
Multiple neighbors say they put in 3-1-1 request to the city and reached out to Council Member Fred Flickinger.
His office tells KPRC 2 they sent over the case to the Department of Neighborhoods to investigate whether there’s any abatement they can do.
“You can hear it creaking,” Gray said. “You can hear, you can hear it settling so you can hear it.”
Gray says she resists the urge to clean up the piles of debris around the home but doesn’t out of fear of a piece of the home falling on her.
“I mean, I get it’s a I get it it’s a process,” she said. “But at least come out here and at least clean this up.”
