Ann Gooding was touched by the Hand of God. That’s the only way she can explain what happened to her Sunday afternoon.

Ann, who lives on Warwick Neck, daily walks about four and a half miles. Warwick Neck Avenue makes up most of her walk. It was windy Sunday and she kept a steady pace. She had her earbuds in and was walking on the east side of the road, heading home, with the Aldrich Estate’s high stone wall on her left, and on the opposite side of the road a low stone wall and a bank of giant evergreens.

A loud crack pierced the air. She froze. The wind had snapped one of the trees about two feet up from the ground. It crashed down on the road.

“It landed right in front of me,” said Ann, who in the moment hadn’t had time to think how lucky she was. Her first thought was to call Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur. The line was busy, so she called Warwick police. She described the scene, saying the tree was across the road in front of the seminary, only the officer didn’t know the estate was once Our Lady of Providence Seminary. That was quickly straightened out and Ann looked to get home. She had to cut through private property to get around the tree, avoiding “sparking” wires as she went.

Meanwhile, Ladouceur was quick to learn of the situation. He was on the scene about 2:30, or 20 minutes after the incident. The section of Warwick Neck Avenue south of the tree and those homes were cut off from the rest of the city.

Within minutes an armada arrived at the scene. Police diverted traffic, firefighters were on the standby in the event downed wires started a fire and the Department of Public Works sent a tree crew that went to work immediately with a front-end loader that pushed the large trunk to one side, opening the road. Rhode Island Energy was also quick to restore power.

Ladouceur credited a police officer with rapidly coordinating the response.

“She got everything moving … the whole team just came together,” he said.

“You know a lot of credit needs to be given to the police, fire, DPW – our own guys – and thank God no one was hurt, because it could have been a really bad situation.”

Realizing the lower end of Warwick Neck had been cut off and thinking of possible detours should something like this happen again, Ladouceur called Father Robert Marciano. Ladouceur said Father Marciano would make arrangements for police to have keys to the Aldrich Mansion gates as a detour to that section of Warwick Neck Avenue.

Reflecting on the experience, Gooding said, she is grateful no one was hurt. “It was like the hand of God.”