Mark Pennington, the girl's uncle, said the injured girl's sister, who sleeps in an adjoining room, got up in the middle of the night to cuddle with her mother. He said had she stayed in her room, she too might have been in harm's way.

"You hope for the best but you have a whole bunch of fears," Pennington said of his injured niece, Julia Engle, a Punahou School seventh-grader.

As Penninngton talked about his concerns for the girl, a city crew worked to clear the fallen tree.

Ed Chun has lived across the street from the home that was struck by the tree for 35 years.

He said city workers came three months ago to trim the tree that crashed into the Engle home at 2347 Beckwith St. about 5:10 a.m. today. At the time, a city worker told him the tree was bad shape and needed to be removed.

"The tree trimmer told me it was sick," he said, shaking his head. "They must not have money."

The trunk of the fallen tree was pockmarked with large, orange globs of sap that looked like little lava cones and the truck appeared to be damaged by termites or dry rot or a combination of the two.

A University of Hawai'i student who lives in the back portion of the two-dwelling unit that was hit by the falling tree said he was jolted awake by a large crash.

"I thought an electrical transformer exploded," said the student who declined to give his name.

Laura Langsfeld, who lives across the street from the Engles, said she heard a loud noise followed immediately by people screaming.

"I thought there was a traffic accident," she said. "I'm just very concerned about this child."