A southwest Atlanta man jolted awake Friday by a huge tree crashing into his family’s home said he feels “blessed” that despite the major damage to the house, no one was injured.

Damon Sylve told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that about 5:45 a.m., “my girlfriend woke me up to a crackling sound, and about 2 or 3 seconds later, I hear a big boom.

“I got up, made sure everybody was OK, and went to the den area and saw that a tree had come through,” said Sylve, who lives in the house on Country Club Drive off Campbellton Road with his mother and girlfriend.

“Right now, we’re trying to call the insurance agent. I’ve never been through this before.”

Despite the falling tree knocking out electricity and heavily damaging about 25 percent of the house, “it could have been a whole lot worse,” he said. “We’re just blessed that nobody got hurt.”

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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney — pictured during a hearing Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 — has cleared the way for Georgia's State Election Board to obtain Fulton ballots and other documents from the 2020 election. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

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