Strong winds knocked down trees and power lines in parts of eastern Iowa last night and hail was reported in some locations. In Cedar Rapids, a huge tree in Bonnie Mumm’s backyard snapped. “The storm was coming through and I went through the back of the house to see what the sky looked like and I heard a large cracking sound,” she says.

Mumm called her daughter, Cecelia Carlson. “My mom called me on the phone and she said, ‘Cecelia, you’re never going to believe what happened,'” Carlson says. Mumm says thankfully the tree fell toward the street rather than toward her house, but it did fall on top of her car — her old car.

Mumm had just parked the new car she bought just yesterday in the garage. Both mother and daughter are laughing about it. “Kind of ironic because she just got a new car today and now the old one’s underneath the tree,” Carlson, the daughter, says. Mumm, the mother, says about five minutes before the tree toppled she’d put her new car in the garage, and put her old car out by the curb.

Mumm believes fate played a role. “I just kind of believe in things like that,” Mumm says. “It just seems like it was time for this one to go.”

Radio Iowa