VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — At first glance, the Bally Lynn Shores section of Virginia Beach didn't appear to get much storm damage. That is, until you see the back of Raven Lauren's home.

"I'm from Arizona, so storms like this are not a thing at all," Lauren told 10 On Your Side. "You never really think a tree is going to fall on your house."

A tree in her backyard cracked in two during Thursday night's storm, the top of it coming onto the roof of her back porch. Seeing the buckling back screen tells you just how heavy it was. It split part of a roof, with damage extending into the kitchen. The strange thing is that she didn't hear it at all. Her dog, Dasher, had his suspicions though.

"He was scared," Lauren said. "He was pacing, but I didn't know why. ... I thought it was just because of the storm."

She told 10 On Your Side that she had her headphones on and didn't hear a thing — that was, until her neighbors came calling.

"I have them on the Ring camera just trying to break down the door, and they're trying to get inside the house," she said, "and I'm like, 'What is going on? What is the big deal?' And they're like, 'You know, a tree fell on your house, right? I was like, 'Wait, what?'"

When she first got a look at the damage, "Yeah, there's a whole tree on the house," she said.

She also got to see how many good neighbors she had. 

"It was really nice the way the neighborhood came — everyone was helping," Lauren said. "Their kids were helping. They were helping just get stuff off of the back. But it was pretty scary."

And it's not lost on her that it could've been much worse. 

"Thank God," she said. "It wasn't like, this is awful. It was like, oh wow, this looks so much worse than it could have been. I have people that I love inside my house. So, it was honestly not an anger thing or an upset thing. It was truly like a moment of gratitude."

She also wanted to remind others that when things like this happen to also check on any small or baby animals that would've called a tree like this, home.

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