Our House Survived
By Lisa Schwendemann Smith
10 Dec 2008
This is a story about what happened to our house and family in February 2008. We consider ourselves very lucky that no one was hurt and that the house was repairable. Georgia was hit by a lot of storms during the first few months of 2008 and there were a lot of families worst off then ours. I do not wish this situation on anyone and I do not want to repeat the experience.
It was a normal Tuesday morning, I got up early, around 6:00am, to get ready for work while my husband and kids were still asleep. The wind was picking up outside but it sounded like a regular storm. In just a few minutes time I was standing at the sink of my small master bath brushing my teeth. I noticed that the lights were dimming but not going completely out. Then it started getting really loud outside. My yard is covered with very tall pine trees. I was hearing the branches snapping off and hitting other limbs as they fell to the ground and our roof. These are not unusual sounds when you have really tall trees but this time there seemed to be a lot of branches dropping. I turned off the water and listen a minute. When I went to open the bathroom door the power finally went out. Now it was completely black to me since I just had lights in my face. I yelled out to my husband, "Are you hearing this?" Luckily I stepped into the doorway. Right then I heard multiple loud bangs and then I felt wind and rain at my back. Due to the loud noise and my screaming everyone was awake. My husband and I scooped up our two children and ran down to our basement. When we passed the hall bathroom I reached inside to grab a flashlight that we kept just inside plugged into an outlet. Again I felt the rain and wind, a very odd feeling when you know that room does not have a window. The kids were crying and I was shaking like I have never done before or since. Once down stairs we made sure all our pets were with us. I think our cat was the first one downstairs. I composed myself and went back upstairs for my camera equipment and laptop. You know for insurance reasons, I had to document what happened. At this point we still had no idea the extent of the damage. After a short time in the basement we were calm and the storm seemed to have passed so we headed upstairs to check out what happened.
We knew something fell on/into the house. When we got upstairs we were all surprised to see the damage. We have lived in this house for twelve years. This is our home. The hall bath was the first damage that we saw. There was insulation from the ceiling in the hallway and the treetop was lying across the toilet. If anyone had been there they certainly would have been seriously hurt. The kids were very upset since this was their bathroom. Next we made our way to the master bath. I could not believe what I saw. Right where I was standing just a short time ago was another part of the tree. This part of the tree hit the marble countertop and cracked it. At this point we were completely overwhelmed. The sun was not fully up yet and we had not been outside. I was glad it was a school day. At least the kids would be safe while my husband and I dealt with the clean up. I got the kids dressed and a neighbor allowed us to use their bathroom for the day. Our house was the only one that got hit in our immediate area. It turned out that down the street from us there were two neighborhoods that had multiple houses damaged. They called it a downburst.
As you can see by the accompanying pictures the bathrooms were in bad shape. Neither my husband nor I have ever dealt with damage like this and we did not know where to start. Who do you call when a tree comes into your house? Who do you trust to help you and not take advantage of the situation? Do you try to stay at the house or get a hotel? What about the kids, we need to keep things as normal as possible. How about the pets, we can't take them all to a hotel, can we? It is amazing how our day changed when we were simply planning on getting the kids off to school and heading into work. Once the kids were at school and my husband and I started making calls that is when it hit us. This was our home. You are supposed to feel safe in your home. Our whole family was in the house at the time, anyone of us could have been seriously hurt. Wow!
My husband and I learned a lot during this process and yes, we made some mistakes. In the end we still feel lucky, it could have been a lot worse. The house is fixed but I think our whole family will always view storms differently now. My son was the hardest hit. He was six when it happened and we had a lot of additional storms for the next few weeks. Every time he heard the tornado warning sound or if the emergency broadcast system broke in on TV he would want to head to the basement. We lived for months with a pair of easy to put on shoes for each member of the family and flashlights at our basement door.
My heart goes out to those who have lost homes and loved ones in storms.
2 responses
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Carolyn Aycock said (13 Dec 2008):
My son had just bought his first house. A week later he came home from work to find a huge oak tree completely demolished his nest. Five months of rebuilding, two apartments and one girlfriend later, he will be able to move back home.
I'm so happy your family was spared injury. Thank you for sharing your story and photos. -
adniloj gave props (22 Dec 2008):
Wow! Wonderful collection of photos; glad to hear you are physically okay & beginning to mend
