Naugatuck resident Rebecca Lima certainly never expected a tree to fall on her house. And she didn’t expect what happened immediately following that incident Monday: her neighbors dropped what they were doing and started to help.
While Lima, 23, didn’t expect neighbors to help, she certainly wasn’t surprised. It’s part of what living in a community is all about, she said.
Lima lives on Woodcrest Circle with her mother, Rita; the two have lived in the quaint middle class neighborhood for the past 12 years. Their neighbor, Justin Campbell, has only lived in the neighborhood off of May Street for one year after moving from Florida.
“This is nothing compared to what we see down there,” he said of the storm.
Still, he knows a tree on a house is nothing anyone wants to deal with, so he decided to gather other neighbors and friends to help.
“I would want someone to do the same for my mother,” he said.
Campbell cut up the tree with a chainsaw and several people pulled on it with a rope to bring it off of the house. Nobody was injured; it appears the house sustained only minor damage to the gutter.
Campbell was helped by neighbors Eric LaPalme, Tom Vizzo, Jimmy Canapetti and Deric Yepes.
