An Orange County woman is now living in a tent on her driveway after a tree fell on her house. But she’s not only dealing with this stress - she's also battling cancer.

  • The tree crashed through the Orange County home about 5 a.m.
  • The homeowner said she doesn't have insurance and staying in a tent
  • No injuries were reported in the incident 

Paula Brownlow was sleeping on the couch when a giant oak tree crashed through the roof, hurling debris right at her.  But just seconds before that, her dog Camo woke her up and got her on her feet. 

“Just so scary,” Paula Brownlow said. “If it wasn’t for Camo – I would have been…”

Brownlow couldn’t finish that sentence.

“Never heard him growl like that ever,” she said.

Camo the English bulldog may have sensed something wasn’t right, because seconds later the oak tree split down the middle and crashed through the roof, breaking trusses and causing severe structural damage to her childhood home.

“I can do this,” Brownlow said. “I can do this. But I have nowhere else to go.”

Brownlow said she and Camo are going to live in a tent under her carport.

“My mom and dad passed and left the house in their will and I haven’t had a chance… I’ve been doing chemo and all of that stuff,” she said.

Paula said she is being treated for breast cancer and will now have to figure out how to pay for repairs without insurance.

“I don’t give up,” she said. “I don’t give up.”

There is some good news to come out of this.

After hearing about this story, some tree trimmers offered to cut the oak tree off of the house free of charge.