Brady Smith and his wife, Grace, were looking forward to a photo session on Sunday to announce their pregnancy.

Instead, the family gathered at UAB Hospital where 23-year-old Smith is in serious condition. A large tree uprooted and toppled while he and other contract linemen were doing power repairs on Saturday following overnight storms in Birmingham.

Smith is expected to survive but suffered a broken spine and multiple other bones.

“He’s so young,” said his cousin, Mary Campbell. “He had his whole life ahead of him and this is just a really tragic accident.”

A GoFundMe has been started to help with what is expected to be a long road to recovery. The couple, high school sweethearts who married in October, just found out last week that they are expecting a baby.

Smith and his fellow crew members from Utility Line Construction Services were called out Saturday morning after storms blew through the area Friday night and into Saturday morning. The company contracts with Alabama Power.

They were working on 21st Avenue South, also known as Diaper Row in the Redmont Park neighborhood.

Campbell said Smith was in the bucket when a tree uprooted and fell. Though it did not hit Smith, it crashed onto the utility truck, knocking him out of the bucket.

He fell to the ground below, landing in a ditch that had filled with water from the heavy rains.

Co-workers quickly removed Smith from the water so he wouldn’t drown.

The tree hit 57-year-old Jeffrey Scott Duffie. Duffie, who lived in the Daviston community in Tallapoosa County, was trapped and eventually pronounced dead on the scene at 10:36 a.m.

Campbell said it was a freak accident.

“Everybody was doing what they were supposed to,” she said. “He had on all of the equipment and harnesses he should have had on.”

Smith immediately underwent an eight-hour surgery at UAB Hospital.

“He has been awake and he’s very much aware of what happened,” Campbell said. “He knew his co-worker had died. He remembers everything.”

“Cognitively, he’s fine,” she said. “There are just a lot of unknowns.”

Once Smith is stable enough to be discharged, he will continue his recovery journey at Spain Rehabilitation Center.

Friends and family started the fundraising campaign to help the young couple with daily needs as well as future expenses.

“Grace has been by his side every step of the way, and both of them will be out of work for the foreseeable future,” according to the GoFundMe. “As you can imagine, the emotional and financial toll of this sudden accident is overwhelming.”

Donations to the GoFundMe can be made here.