Kara Bryson was just days away from her high school graduation in North Carolina when her life was cut short. The 18-year-old cheerleader was killed when a tree fell on the RV she was sleeping in.
“It came out of nowhere”
Kara was camping out with friends on Monday, May 27, in Penland Point, a North Carolina community near Lake Chatuge. By coincidence, Jaycee Sutton, a former cheerleader at and graduate of Tuscola High School, where Kara was a student, was also at the campground. She recalled for local media the death-dealing wind that pushed down the tree that struck the trailer Kara was sleeping in.
“It came out of nowhere really… just started pouring rain. You could hear the hail and everything like that… tree branches flying, all that stuff, yeah. It was crazy,” Sutton related to local media station WLOS. Friends in the campground called 9-1-1 for help, hoping for the best. First responders struggled with high winds, lightning, and a difficult extraction from the trailer. Sadly, Kara had not survived the tree fall.
Tree falls on RV—not from tornado
Fire officials contacted the Weather Service, suspicious that perhaps the tree fall was the result of a tornado. The National Weather Service recorded straight-line winds of 70 miles per hour in the area but no reports of a tornado.
Four other people were in the RV when the tree, originally six feet from the rig, came down. They were not hurt.
Kara, a highly regarded nursing student, was lost to her classmates and family, who are now struggling to come to terms with her absence. A GoFundMe page has been set up.
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Very sad story. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family 🙏
Thank you, Russ and Tina! 🙂 How tragic! 🙁 The poor girl! 😯😯 I pray her family and friends are comforted as they deal with such an unexpected and swift death. 🙏😥🙏 Thanks again, Russ and Tina, have a great week, and safe travels! 🙂