A Florida woman was killed when a falling tree tore through her home during Hurricane Isaias, crushing her as she lay beside her husband. Trapped in the wreckage, her husband could do little more than reach for help through his Apple Watch.
Jenn Biggs Williams, 57, died Saturday after the tree collapsed through the roof of the couple’s Pensacola house. Her husband of 10 years, Joey, was pinned beneath the debris.
Joey suffered severe injuries to both legs and could not reach his phone. After spending roughly 20 to 30 minutes trapped, he managed to crawl free and use his Apple Watch to contact his son as the powerful storm swept through the area, according to NBC6.
Hurricane Isaias battered the southeastern United States after making landfall Friday night, leaving at least four people dead and numerous others injured.
Despite widespread power failures, Joey was able to send a message to his son during the storm, the outlet reported.
When his son asked how serious the damage was, Joey replied with the heartbreaking words: “My wife is gone.”
The devastated stepson spent the next morning clearing fallen trees from the area while trying to process the sudden loss.
“I’ve been dropping trees all morning, crying and carrying on,” he said. “And me, I’m just angry.”
Jenn Biggs Williams, 57, died Saturday when a tree crashed through her home in Pensacola, Florida. She is pictured with her daughter, Brittnee.
The tree struck the home as Williams lay beside her husband, Joey, during Hurricane Isaias, which devastated parts of the southeastern United States.
Her husband remembered Williams as an “ultra-nice badass person.” She is pictured with her daughter and son-in-law.
The powerful storm reached the Florida Panhandle near Destin at approximately 8:30 p.m. as a Category 2 hurricane, bringing maximum sustained winds of 105 mph.
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About half an hour later, wind speeds had dropped to 85 mph, but Isaias continued causing widespread destruction along the Gulf Coast.
Dramatic video captured the storm’s impact, including the roof of Pensacola’s Rest and Relax Inn being ripped away by powerful winds. Debris flew through the air as trees swayed violently in the background.
According to PowerOutage.us, more than 418,000 homes and businesses in Florida and Alabama lost electricity as Hurricane Isaias moved through the region.
Florida experienced the largest share of the outages, with roughly 300,000 customers facing a night without power.
First responders found Williams unconscious and without a pulse when they reached the family’s home, NBC6 reported.
In an interview with NewsNation, Joey later recalled the terrifying impact. He said his wife’s death happened “pretty instant.”
Hurricane Isaias killed four people and injured others, while more than 418,000 homes and businesses across Florida and Alabama were left without electricity.
Williams’s stepson told NBC 6 that Joey was in bed when the tree crushed his wife and that he ultimately used his Apple Watch to summon help.
The husband said emergency crews gave him the opportunity to say one final goodbye before taking her body away.
‘They let me say bye to her. I watched the love of my life for 10 years go into the back of a coroner’s van and head down that road. That’s the hardest thing I ever swallowed in my life,’ he said.
Joey described Williams, who worked in human resources, as someone everybody loved, adding that she was an ‘ultra-nice badass person.’
‘I just want to hear her voice. I’ve called her phone five times just to tell her … she was my world,’ the devastated husband said.
