Tampa woman's roof caves in over bed after storm: 'Two or three more seconds, it would have hit me'
TAMPA, Fla. - Strong storms that moved through the Bay Area on Wednesday evening led to a scare for one Tampa woman who says her roof caved in over her bed, and she got out of the way with seconds to spare.
What they're saying:
Cora Butler tells FOX 13 she was going to bed in her apartment off 58th St. and noticed half the mattress was wet, along with her covers.
"My daughter came in from work and she took all the covers and stuff off and put some more on there, and she was trying to see where the leak was coming from," Butler said.
Pictured: Cora Butler.
Butler says her daughter then noticed that a nearby windowsill and the carpet behind the bed were also wet.
"I called the landlord," Butler said. "They came and someone went in there and vacuumed it up and put a blower in there to dry it."
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A while later, however, Butler says she noticed a crack in the ceiling above her bed that was growing. That's when she called her daughter back into the room.
"She looked at it and it was coming down," Butler said. "So she grabbed me out the bed and it wasn't, like, three seconds by the time I got out of bed – I didn't even get to the room door – the roof caved in."
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue responded to the apartment a short time later, according to Butler, with crews saying it's not safe to stay there until repairs are made.
"I'm staying somewhere else tonight, and as I was in there getting something, another part fell down," Butler explained.
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While Butler is temporarily out of the place she's called home for 18 years, she says she's lucky the situation wasn't worse.
"Two or three more seconds, it would have hit me," Butler said.
Pictured: Cora Butler gathers belongings before leaving her home after part of the roof caved in.
What's next:
Butler says a tarp has been placed over part of the roof and repairs should be finished "in a couple of days."
The Source: This story was written with information from an interview with Cora Butler in Hillsborough County, Florida, on June 11, 2025.
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