A woman and her one-year-old daughter escaped serious injury when a massive oak tree was blown onto the van they were in outside a Mosheim church about 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Sunday morning storms also toppled trees across more than a dozen county roads and damaged homes and outbuildings in some areas, according to Greene County Road Superintendent David Weems and Bill Brown, director of the Greeneville Greene County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

Winds blew the huge oak tree onto a 1998 Ford Windstar van in which Jennifer Lawson, of Oasis Road, and her one-year-old daughter, who was not identified, were sitting, according to Deputy Sheriff Jeff Caudill's report.

The van was parked outside the Mosheim Church of God on Main Street as a strong thunderstorm swept through the area.

Rev. Frankie Isley, pastor of the Mosheim Church of God, said Lawson and her child were visiting the church on Sunday, along with Lawson's husband.

The pastor said the church's youth choir was singing the hymn "Amazing Grace" as the storm roared outside when Lawson, who was carrying her child, "burst screaming into the church."

Rev. Isley said he and several members of the church rushed outside and searched the crushed van, fearing that another child might be trapped in the wreckage.

The pastor said the searchers found no one else in the destroyed van.

During a telephone interview, Rev. Isley attributed the survival of the mother and child to "divine intervention." "There is no way they could have survived otherwise," Rev. Isley said.

Three other vehicles parked outside the church also were damaged, according to reports filed by Deputy Caudill. The damaged vehicles included:

* a 1996 Chevrolet Lumina owned by Jackie and Linda Linkous, of the West Andrew Johnson Highway, that sustained an estimated $2,300 in damage;

* a 1992 Dodge pickup owned by Rnell Culvahouse, which sustained $3,000 in damage; and

* a 2006 Nissan Sentra, valued at $23,800, and owned by Tim and Donna Price, of Willow Road.

Bill Brown said this morning the winds that toppled the tree on the van and three other vehicles outside the Mosheim Church of Good were thought to have been "straight-line winds."

Brown said he had been told the damage was not the result of a tornado.

This morning, Brown said, he was still doing damage assessment in the Grassy Creek Road and Lonesome Pine Trail sections of western Greene County.

"We have several reports of porches blown off homes and outbuildings destroyed by the Sunday morning storm along Grassy Creek Road," Brown said.

He noted that he also was aware of a barn along Lonesome Pine Trail near its intersection with Grassy Creek Road that had its tin roof blown off.

"It's leaning over now and it wasn't before," Brown said of the barn.

In the Mosheim church incident, witnesses said Mrs. Lawson had taken the child, who wasn't feeling well, out to the van just before a strong thunderstorm swept over the area.

Brown, who is recovering from recent back surgery, said Deputy EMA Director Teddy Lawing conducted early damage assessment on Sunday. Brown said he was working to complete the damage assessment and report the results to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

Other areas of Greene County sustained damage from the storms and high winds Sunday. Several trees were reported down on Blue Springs Parkway, Grassy Creek Road and the Kingsport Highway. Crews with Greeneville Light & Power worked much of Sunday removing limbs from power lines.

Greene County Road Superintendent David Weems said 16 county road were blocked by fallen trees on Sunday.

The "worst area," Weems said, was Grassy Creek Road in western Greene County.

Other roads that were at least partially blocked by fallen trees on Sunday, Weems said, included:

* Cherokee Street near Mosheim;

* Tweed Springs Road;

* Amity Road;

* Whitehouse Road;

* Lovelace Road;

* Oakwood Road;

* Shackleford Road;

* Old Snapps Ferry Road;

* Oakdale Road South;

* River Village Lane;

* Old Newport Highway;

* Little Chuckey Road;

* Pates Hill Road;

* Milburton Road; and

* Daniels Lane.

Weems said Greene County Highway Department employees worked until about 2 a.m. today clearing fallen trees from county roads.

He also said Highway Department employees would be back on those same roadways today clearing away and grinding up debris that had been moved to the sides of the roads on Sunday.

Chuck Bowlin, operations manager for the Greeneville Light & Power System, said this morning that GL&PS crews worked until about 11 p.m. Sunday repairing storm damage to electric facilities across the county that knocked out power to 1,500 customers.

Bowlin said power outages were scattered across the county. The hardest hit areas, he said, were in Mosheim, the Grassy Creek Road area and Sentelle Road off the 107 Cutoff.

It took about three hours to restore power to the Grassy Creek Road area on Sunday, Bowlin said, while it took about 45 minutes to repair damage that knocked out power to 495 customers along Sentelle Road.