Valley woman hospitalized after getting trapped in mobile home destroyed by storm
Jul 18, 2022, 1:02 PM | Updated: 1:07 pm
PHOENIX — The family land around Maryjane Garcia Stanley’s home north of Mesa went from pristine to unrecognizable in a day.
Sunday night’s strong winds and rain destroyed a mobile home on the property, trapping her mother in the rubble.
“It’s devastating. I’m still in shock. I can’t believe it,” Garcia Stanley told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Monday.
Garcia Stanley has lived on the land near the Beeline Highway and Gilbert Road her whole life. Her 61-year-old mother had been living in the mobile home on the property for the last year or so.
Garcia Stanley hadn’t seen a storm — weather experts called it a microburst with gusts upwards of 65 mph — that violent before.
She was woken up by the wind at about 9:30 p.m. and tried to record the storm from a window, but elected to hold off after seeing shingles from her roof flapping around and flying toward her mother’s residence.
Soon after, Garcia Stanley’s wife and nephew were woken up by the gusts. Then, the child’s outdoor playpen got knocked over. The nearby mobile home was next to go.
“We didn’t see anything, it was so dark,” Garcia Stanley said.
The concern quickly shifted to her mother’s well-being.
Garcia Stanley and the others rushed out of the house to check on her mother. They found her with her legs pinned under a stove, a chair under her head and open wiring nearby.
“I told my mom she was going to have to fight it because we had to get her out of there,” Garcia Stanley said.
The group was eventually able to get the mother out before she was taken to a hospital, where she is being treated for broken vertebrae.
The mobile home, including a new washer and dryer Garcia Stanley bought for her mother, was completely destroyed.
Garcia Stanley doesn’t know what’s next for her family.
Authorities haven’t yet been able to survey the damage, which they said included multiple downed power and transmission lines in addition to the lost mobile home.
“I’m worried for my mom. I still picture her under all the stuff,” Garcia Stanley said.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Colton Krolak contributed to this report.
