RIVERDALE, Ga. — A woman who says she has terminal cancer is living in a motel after a tree crashed through the roof of her Riverdale mobile home during the first winter storm in early January.
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“I was basically sitting up in my bed when all of a sudden everything went black. The lights went out, and the tree hit the side of my leg. It was frightening because I was pinned down,” said Santee Roberts.
Roberts told Channel 2′s Tom Regan the fallen tree destroyed the power supply meter outside her home. She says she spent three nights in her home without heat or electricity.
“I’m afraid, I’m cold. I was up under four blankets, boots, with my hat on, everything,” said Roberts.
With the help of community charities, she booked a motel room. She says the property management company that owns the mobile home property on Georgia 85 in Clayton County, removed the tree from her house and placed a piece of plywood to cover the hole in her roof.
Roberts says they also replaced the power supply meter box. But when she called Georgia Power to ask them to turn the lights back on, a utility representative said they could not do that because the property manager did not provide a required inspection report of the new power supply meter box.
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“I’m disabled. They know this, and they’re just trying to hinder me,” said Roberts.
A property management representative told Channel 2 Action News that they did provide Georgia Power with an inspection document.
Besides the power issue, Roberts believes property management should be responsible for repairing the damage to the mobile home she owns because she had asked that dying trees that posed a risk to her home be removed.
“She told me, because I own my home, this is a natural disaster and there’s nothing they can do,” said Roberts.
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A property management representative said they were unaware of any complaints Roberts may have made about decaying trees around her home.
Roberts says she hopes the situation can be resolved soon because she can’t afford to pay for her motel room. She wants to return home but says she can’t live there without heat and electricity.
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