Hurricane victim’s husband recalls watching wife die when tree crashed through home

( NewsNation ) — Joey Williams, the husband of a woman who died in Florida as Hurricane Isaias battered Gulf Coast states , is remembering his wife as an “ultra-nice bada– person” whom everyone loved.

Jenn Biggs Williams, 57, worked in human resources. She and Joey were married for a decade. She is the first known fatality of Hurricane Isaias, which struck the Gulf Coast over the weekend.

A person in Birmingham, Alabama, also died in connection with the storm, the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency director confirmed.

Williams said that as the storm moved through, the couple went outside to take pictures of the sky and some of the damage it had caused. When they went back inside, a tree fell through the roof and into the living room, trapping both of them beneath it.

“I was able to squeeze out. My wife didn’t make it,” Williams told NewsNation. “The tree just fell on her and it was … we like to think it was pretty instant, you know? I mean, just gone. Gone.”

Williams said he was able to crawl out and began calling for his wife.

“I couldn’t … there’s nothing, you know?” he said.

He got a neighbor to help as the storm continued to produce winds of up to 100 mph.

“I’m like, ‘My wife’s trapped under the tree. Please, please,'” he said. “And, I mean, there’s nothing we can do.”

They called emergency services, but Williams said responders told him their ability to help was limited as the storm intensified. By the time crews arrived and were able to cut up the tree and pull her out, it was too late. The coroner’s office was called to the scene.

“They let me say bye to her,” he said. “I watched the love of my life for 10 years go into the back of a coroner’s van and head down that road. That’s the hardest thing I ever swallowed in my life.”

“Everybody loved her, right? Even her co-workers,” he said. “She was the ultra-nice bada– person.”

“I just want to hear her voice,” he continued. “I’ve called her phone five times just to tell her … she was my world.”