Detroit home, car crushed by neighbor's tree during thunderstorm

DETROIT (FOX 2) - When a massive tree fell onto a Detroit home during this weekend's severe weather, the woman who owns the home is now facing the question: how to clean it up? It may seem like a simple question – except the tree isn't hers; it came from her neighbor's yard.

Lucille Belton has spent the past few months working on her home on Monte Vista in Detroit. But on Sunday, when thunderstorms with heavy winds blew through Southeast Michigan, all of her progress seemed to be wiped away.

"It’s just like you know your money you spend it and you try to do the right thing and this happens so what can you do?" Belton said. 

The big tree from her neighbor's yard crushed her home and Belton said she was just starting the homeowners insurance process.

"My son had put in a new roof on there, new windows, everything inside is new and we were just in the process of going to the insurance company to get insurance," Belton said.

The tree was originally planted on her neighbor's property – but the people living there are renters.

Now Belton has to figure out how to get things patched up as soon as possible.

"I’ve worked on this house the past 3-4 months. Just a lot of hard work and a lot of money," her nephew, Denzell Littleton, said. "All damages gonna need a new roof again. Squirrels are getting in - it’s been 2 days, birds getting in."

Tthe destruction of the house is one thing – but the damage extended to more.

"It smashed my car. My transportation is like, I gotta do this and do that around the house, and the car not to mention I just left my car 30 seconds before the tree came down - so now I’m mentally messed up because I could have been in the car," Littleton said.

A GoFundMe was created to help fix the damaged home. Anyone able to donate can do so here.