Family uninjured after large tree falls onto Sylmar home in midst of strong Santa Ana winds

A Sylmar family escaped uninjured on Monday after the strong Santa Ana winds sent a massive tree crashing onto their home. 

Security camera video from Brian White's home captured the sound of the tree uprooting before landing on his house early Monday. 

"We kind of heard a cracking noise," White said. "Didn't think much of it. Three, four seconds later and an explosion sound."

He says that the tree crashed onto the roof of his one-story home at around 7:30 a.m., and that two of the branches broke through the roof of his son's room.

"He was lying in bed, asleep, probably. ... About an arm's length from where he was sleeping," White said. 

Aerial footage of White's home shows the massive hole in the earth where the tree used to sit, on a hillside overlooking the property. Crews were spotted cutting the tree into smaller pieces with chainsaws. 

Jezebelle White said that nearly half of their home was covered by the tree after it fell, not only crashing through her brother's room but also blocking the doors on one side of the home. 

"I had to go through our kitchen window, because I could no longer go through that door," she said. 

Trees were felled all around Los Angeles on Monday as powerful Santa Ana winds reaching up to 55 miles per hour hit the area. In Moorpark, the SR-118 was closed for several hours when a large tree fell onto power lines, while in Tarzana, a busy road was blocked by a massive downed tree near a popular country club.

Cary Lee, the Director of Golf Maintenance at the Mulholland Hills Country Club, about 13 miles from White's home, said that crews removed the debris from the tree and cut down several other trees that could cause issues in the near future. 

"You can see how big these trees are. They just get top-heavy and they're weak and they blew down," Lee said. "I'm glad no one got hurt."

White is among the many Angelenos now concerned with even more rain on the way, after unusually heavy rain hit Southern California last week, bringing several inches of precipitation and saturating the ground. On top of that, he also has several new punctures in the roof of his home.