If any of you saw any of the footage from the tornado in Fayetteville, NC…well, the tornado destryoed my house yesterday. Seriously, the house that my wife and I bought 11 months ago has been smashed. The entire area has been declared a disaster area.
Hundreds of houses were destroyed in my area alone. It happened so fast. I was in my man cave drawing cartoons at my drafting table and playing Civ 7. The news channel was on and I was keeping an eye out for the weather, but not expecting a tornado to hit right there. I live less than a quarter mile from the Yadkin Gate at Fort Bragg. The rain picked up, I heard disyant thunder and the power went out. So I went to the circuit box in the hallway to check. The wife went to the bathroom at the end of the hall. Suddenly there was a loud roar, the house began shaking and trees were flying INTO the house. I grabbed the wife and pushed her into the center room…which is my man cave. We were holding each other when the youngest cat Patches ran in fear into the back “sun room”. Thats when the roof came off.
We thought Pacthes was gone, sucked up in the storm. Every tree in our yard was ripped up. Most were slammed into the house. The house was completley destroyed. Both cars were in the garage, but the gasrage is gone. Its merely rubble just laying on top of our cars.
We’re staying with a friend now. USAA says they’ll be here tomorrow. The authorities have condemned whats left our house. But Banshee and Jet Jaguar were found alive and well, just frightened…and Patches too. The lucky little she devil had hidden under a couch.
We’re going to be looking for a home to rent…but most of our belongings are gone…either smashed beyond use of blown out of the house. It was seriously the most frightening experience I’ve had. USAA tells me they’ll rebuild our house, but whats left of it can collapse at any time. The foundation is cracked. They’ll have to bulldoze it either way.
Many of my neighbors are no better off. My next door neighbor and a few others gathered outside right after and ran around trying to help as many as we could. But our neighborhood is rubble now. We lost almost everything. Hopefully USAA will brighten my spirits tomorrow.
Holy crap. I’m glad you and yours are all safe and accounted for, but I’m sorry for the loss of your house and everything in it. I can’t even imagine. Be safe, and I hope USAA treats you well.
Thanks. Some things may be salvagable, but most everything was smashed. We’re lucky to be alive. I;ll have to post pics when I can because the house literally came apart around us. When the roof came off a largw pine tree landed in the sun room, another fell into the back bedroom and bathroom. Things were flynig past us and I honestly thought while holding my wife down “We are going to fucking die…the tornado is right on top of us.”.
It was. Witnesses told me later it went right over and onto our house. Our roof is…well blocks away.
Soldiers in my unit wanted to come help me clear out my stuff today, but I told the commander i didn’t want anything moved until the insurance guys look at it…plus, they deemed the house condemned and told us not to go into it. I have to go in tomorrow…at thew very least I need to get my family photo albums.
I am also very glad that you are ok, I’m super excited that you didn’t lost anyone (cats included!!) I don’t have anything new to add except your doper friends are here for you!
I think the the one thing that is keeping me (and Mrs. JR) from falling to pieces is that we could have easily been killed. If we were in any other part of the house its almost a certainty. Also many of our neighbors and friends are there for support. The cats are freaked out, but Jet Jaguar and Banshee seem to be recovering. Funny, in a way…they don’t particularly like each other, but we found them huddled together under the bed. (which makes the LUCKY) the giant tree that hit that side of the house collapsed the wall and cracked the foundation. The bed almost crushed them, but they were alright)
Patches was scared until this morning. We had to move them to our friends home in gym bags. The cat carriers were in the shed…which is gone.
Holy shit. How awful. I can’t even imagine how terrifying that would be. Glad everyone’s all right, though. Hope the recovery goes smoothly and quickly!
I am terrified of tornado weather and the prospect of losing our house. We have a pretty good storm shelter area in the basement, and whenever there’s a tornado watch I start loading stuff into it and checking supplies: water/batteries/flashlights/radio, purse/cell phone, home office stuff (I’m self-employed and work at home, which probably is a large part of my fear: can’t work if my office goes to kingdom come), dogs and their stuff, etc. It’s worse if I’m home alone.
God love Mr. S, he lets me indulge my paranoia. Last weekend we had a big hail/tornado threat, and I packed even more stuff into the basement than usual, including my actual desktop computer, instead of just my backup drive and the laptop and netbook. And Mr. S rigged up protection for the vehicles (we have no garage). We even talked abut the “what ifs” as we hunkered in the basement, and about how of course it would be a horrible thing, it would also be a chance for a “do-over.” So I’d like to think that we could pull something positive out of such a disaster.
I hope you can too. The biggest one is that everyone is alive. Take care.
I wondered if anyone on the boards was affected by the weather. I am happy to hear that you and your wife and the cats are all safe and alive. The loss of property sucks donkey balls, but as you state, all of that can be replaced. Best thoughts and wishes to you!
