Elderly woman needs help after tree falls on home during storm

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — An elderly woman needs help after Tuesday night's storms damaged her home and electrical box. She told News 4 she needs the electricity to take her Dialysis and is worried for her health.

“I take it five days a week, seven hours a day, and I’m taking dialysis to live because my heart is not strong enough for a transplant,” said Artie Palmer.

Artie Palmer said she first got an alert from the National Weather Service on her phone Tuesday night about the storm.

“Shortly after that, I heard a crash. It happened real fast,” said Palmer.

Palmer has lived in her house for over 30 years.

During Tuesday night's storms, she said the tree in her backyard broke and fell. She said it sounded like a car driving into a house.

That’s when Palmer said she could hear water pouring through the back room.

However, as an elderly woman on dialysis, there wasn’t much she could do Tuesday night until her caretaker came Wednesday morning.

"Before I even went into the house, I came into the backyard and I looked and I saw the tree....like oh, my God,” said Kathy Hugine, Artie Palmer’s caretaker.            

 A tree on the house and only some electricity working made Palmer and Hugine worried. So they made some calls for help.

“Then next thing....turn around I gave channel four news a phone call, and then also call the lawn people who take care of the lawn,” said Hugine.

While News 4 was at the home on Wednesday, the lawn company showed up and said they would help out.

"She was really worried and upset about the tree that fell on her roof. I let her know not to worry. We can handle it all,” said Rio Columbus with Proqual Lawn Care.       

OG&E also showed up to the house and turned off the power for safety, but told Palmer she would need an electrician to fix the rest due to the extent of the damage.       

Now, Palmer and Hugine are hoping for a miracle to help Palmer’s health.

“She needs to get back on her dialysis tomorrow, tomorrow. And I'm hoping that somebody can come today and give a help here in order to help her get on a machine tomorrow,” said Hugine.

Hugine said she made a couple more calls to help with the electrical box, and hasn’t had any luck, but is hopeful something will turn up.