Wind Sends Tree Flying, Killing Loudoun Teen

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Snowy Weather Hits Region
Snow, sleet and ice make for a messy wintry mix in the Washington, D.C. area.

Those who live in Jennifer Zilke's Loudoun County neighborhood at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains say the winds are known to funnel down the valley and sweep through with unimpeded ferocity.

Yesterday, they were no less fierce.

Jennifer, 15, was walking with her father and her 9-year-old sister in the family's front yard in Bluemont about 3 p.m. when a gale sliced across the property and sent portions of a massive old tree crashing on top of the teen.

Jennifer, a sophomore at Loudoun Valley High School, was unconscious but breathing when paramedics arrived, county sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell said. She was taken by ambulance to Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

"It's just a terrible thing to have happen, especially when you have young people like this die," said Loudoun County Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson. "It really takes a toll."

A woman who answered the phone yesterday at the Zilke family residence on Foggy Bottom Road declined to comment.

Neighbors described Jennifer as a sweet girl who talked easily with adults. With her long brown hair flowing behind her, she could often be seen riding horses through the neighborhood, her mother keeping pace beside her. The neighborhood is rural, with homes on 30-acre plots.

"She rides horses, or she rode horses," a neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said yesterday, sounding shaken. "I hate to talk about her in the past tense."

"She was a really sweet girl," the neighbor added, calling it "terribly tragic." "It just makes you realize that it could happen to any member of your family. Trees blow over . . ."

Yesterday afternoon, wind speeds reached 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

The Bluemont incident was not the first time winter winds have been dangerous in Loudoun. In November 2003, a 14-year-old Loudoun girl was nearly killed when she was crushed by a massive oak tree felled by winds while she waited for a school bus in Sterling.

Stephanie Jones Silvis, an assistant principal at Loudoun Valley High, said news of Jennifer's death was traveling through the community yesterday. Silvis said that she did not know the teenager but that a teacher at the school said Jennifer was known for her "sweet, quiet" demeanor and was well-liked.

Loudoun schools spokesman Wayde B. Byard said grief counselors will be available when school is back in session tomorrow.