{"id":279318,"date":"2026-09-04T23:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/279318\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T23:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:40:08","slug":"family-rescued-by-bystanders-after-large-tree-falls-on-car-during-storms-in-bethel-park-we-started-praying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/279318\/","title":{"rendered":"Family rescued by bystanders after large tree falls on car during storms in Bethel Park: “We started praying”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Bethel Park, Thursday night’s storm<\/a>\u00a0wreaked havoc across the city, knocking out power to schools and homes, but it also took down trees, leaving one family stuck and worried they wouldn’t get out. They were only able to, thanks to some strangers who decided to step in.<\/p>\n

Maggie Sheffer was behind the wheel with her husband and three young daughters, turning onto Highland from Bethel Church, when suddenly the windshield shattered and the roof caved in.<\/p>\n

“It was kind of an out-of-body experience,” Maggie Sheffer said. “The girls were screaming and crying in the back seat, worried that we were going to die, and he and I were just telling them that we were OK. We started praying.”<\/p>\n

They were surrounded by wires and tree limbs and couldn’t open the doors.<\/p>\n

“We were in our heads going through, what if we can’t get out? What if we need to break the windows? We didn’t know if anyone could see us because we were totally inside of that tree,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"bethel-park-car.jpg<\/p>\n

A family was rescued from their car after a large tree fell on top of it during storms in Bethel Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Photo: KDKA)<\/p>\n

Feet away, Isabella Dudjak and her boyfriend Luke Fordyce were watching TV when the power went out and they heard a loud noise.<\/p>\n

“It lit up out here. It was really bright,” Fordyce said.<\/p>\n

When they looked outside, they saw the flashing lights of the Sheffers’ car and ran over.<\/p>\n

“We just started like screaming, ‘Is anybody out here? Is everybody okay?'” Dudjak said.<\/p>\n

Once the couple got the family’s attention, they were able to lift the trunk and get Maggie Sheffer’s husband out. Then came the girls and Maggie Sheffer.<\/p>\n

“If it was me in that situation, I would be praying and hoping that somebody would come and help me,” Dudjak said.<\/p>\n

What was instinct for Dudjak and Fordyce left the Sheffers filled with gratitude.<\/p>\n

“The fact that somebody was willing to risk their own lives to come and help us was such a blessing and unexpected, and we’re so thankful for them and for the example that they showed for our daughters of showing kindness to others,” Maggie Sheffer said.<\/p>\n

As for the car, it remained in the same spot for nearly 24 hours until a tow truck removed it from the scene around 4:30 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Bethel Park, Thursday night’s storm\u00a0wreaked havoc across the city, knocking out power to schools and homes, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[894,73,75,74,34893],"class_list":["post-279318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-allegheny-county","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-storm-damage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}