Marla Wirtala of Bettendorf said she had taken refuge in her basement when she heard limbs from her backyard silver maple tree hit her home in succession "like dominoes."
One of them slammed a hole through the roof of her home's attached garage, but mainly missed the living area of the house.
By the time the derecho storm that hit the Quad-Cities Monday ended, her front yard and that of Justin and Lynette Roberts next door were covered with big, leaf-covered limbs. So was the street in front.
All told, parts of three big maples came down on, or in the yards of, the two homes located on Olympia Drive, just south of Spruce Hills Drive.
Had some of the big limbs fallen differently, there would have been more damage to the homes, Wirtala said.
Almost immediately after the storm ended, other neighbors began arriving to see what had happened and to help, Aaron Roberts, son of Justin and Lynette, said.
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"The street was completely blocked, but within 20 or 30 minutes we cleaned it all up," he said.
"We're absolutely blessed with neighbors and their real quick response," he said.
Getting the trees off the yards will take more time, as will assessing the damage to the Wirtala home.
At one point a driver passing by the house slowed down to say "I'm sorry" out of her window.
While the Roberts and Wirtala homes appeared to be the hardest hit on Olympia, there were limbs and branches down all up and down the street. Residents were picking up debris and using chainsaws to create smaller pieces, hauling the wood to the curb.
Elsewhere in the city, public works crews were removing limbs from leaf-covered streets.