Massive tree strikes Wahiawa home, family’s close call raises safety concerns

By Kristen Consillio

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    WAHIAWA, Hawaii (KITV) — Kai Marzan’s bunkbed is just feet away from where a massive tree plowed into their home.

“We heard the crackling and then all of a sudden it just went boom,” said his mother Jasmine Marzan.

Marzan and his brother discovered the hole in their bathroom.

“They’re like, ‘mom look.’ And so I went in the bathroom, and that’s when we saw the tree coming out from our ceiling,” she said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.'”

The Marzans live in Wahiawa Heights next to the east range of Schofield Barracks. The boys ride their bikes just about every day under the dead Albizia trees from the Army’s side of the fence.

“We don’t know when it is going to be safe for us to come back home because there’s still branches hanging over our property,” Jasmine said.

“Just not knowing when it’s going to fall. It’s raining right now,” added her husband Cole. “So is it gonna fall today? A whole tree gonna fall and bust the house in half?”

The Marzans have had to patch up their bathroom and so far no one from the Army has come out to help. And this is not the first close call.

She said a tree hit her next door neighbor’s house a few years ago and it still hasn’t been fixed.

In a statement, the U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii told Island News they are currently investigating the case and looking at existing contract options to address this “immediate tree concern and to assess other trees along East Range fence.”

Still, the family is grateful because it could have been so much worse, “He was on the top bunk bed and it could have just hit. It’s right by the window where the trees are and it could have crushed and he could have been sleeping in there,” Jasmine said. “They could have been brushing their teeth or in the shower. I thank the Lord that none of them got hurt.”

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