Friday night’s storm didn’t just knock power out for hundreds of thousands of households in the area, but it also produced casualties: at least a dozen people were killed, with many more injured by the devastating winds that felled trees and downed power lines. One of those injured was Carolina Alcalde, a D.C. resident who was struck by a tree as she rode her motorcycle on 15th Street near Meridian Hill Park on Friday night.

According to close friend Victoria Page Fulkerson, Alcalde was coming home from Virginia around the time that the violent storm started sweeping across the city. As she climbed 15th Street alongside Meridian Hill Park, a pine tree came crashing down, striking her back. (This isn’t the first time a tree has proved dangerous—last October, a jogger was killed when a branch struck him while he ran in Mt. Pleasant.)

After some neighbors spotted the accident and flagged down an ambulance, Alcalde was rushed to George Washington Hospital, where yesterday she underwent five-and-a-half hours worth of surgery on her back. Her spinal cord was severed in the accident, said Fulkerson, leaving Alcalde paralyzed from the mid-section down.

Fulkerson said that Alcalde’s family came in from Indiana yesterday to help, and that friends have started raising funds for what is expected to be a long and costly recovery. Fulkerson said that expenses during the first year of recovery could exceed $250,000. In addition to her back, Alcalde suffered five broken ribs, a fractured shoulder blade and trauma to her lungs.

Alcalde is an office manager at CBIZ, a national consulting firm, and an avid motorcyclist—she’s a member of the Latin American Motorcycle Organization. Fulkerson called her an “incredible person,” and said the her group of friends was devastated by the news.