Sunday, April 15, 2007
What is up with the weather????
Both of my sisters have been affected by the weather for the past 2 days.
My youngest (T) lives in the Ozark mountains. On Friday, just as I was leaving work my father called to tell me T's house had been struck by lightening and that they had had a fire because of it. He sounded very "no big deal" about it so I wasn't concerned. Today my mom called me to tell that they didn't just have a fire because of it, they are now homeless because of it.
They live in a house that's built into a hill. A vent to their house travels straight up through the hill. Lightening went through that vent into their laundry room, blew out through her brand new dryer, and through the electrical lines throughout the whole house, and even to their well outside.
Thankfully the plans they had for that day had changed a bit. She was supposed to go with her DH into town (they live in the middle of nowhere) and her 14 yo DS was supposed to babysit his 3 yo and >1 yo brothers. What ended up happening was she stayed home with the baby and her DH took the two older boys, AND they got a late start. I cannot imagine how freaked out my nephew may have been or the tragedy that may have happened if they had gone into town and left the boys at home.
Anyway BIL had just arrived home and she was standing outside talking to him when the lightening struck. She thought it struck between the dog "barn" (she used to raise pugs) and the pasture. It frightened her so she ran everyone in the house. No sooner had they got into the house then the smoke alarms went off. Then the oldest came running down the hall yelling "fire" and she turned to tell him to stop being so overdramatic that he'd scare the babies when smoke came rolling out of the laundry room (which is next to nephew's room).
Everyone got out okay. She even grabbed diapers and formula but forgot to grab bottles (the firemen brought them out to her after they got the fire out!). They got both the trucks out of the garage and BIL got the hose out and tried to get water into the attic while Sis called 911. She said she had no idea how panicked she was until she heard herself talking to 911. All this time she's holding the baby. She handed baby off to big brother and went in and out of the house a few times getting blankets to keep the kids warm and tried to see if she could help BIL. She said she knew it was hopeless as soon as she got near since she could hear the fire roaring.
I talked to her on the phone a little while ago and the power company is there trying to restore power so they can maybe get the well back up. The insurance company has put them in a 2 room hotel and they're going to see if they'll get a trailer out on the property to live in for the next 6 months or so while their home is rebuilt. She says the most upsetting part of all this was seeing her babies' clothing laying on the floor all burnt up and imagine them wearing them. Needless to say by that time we were both in tears.
Yesterday my sis that lives near Dallas got caught up in a tornado that hit there. Fortunately they're okay and sustained no damage.
One more reason to hate living so far away from my family.
My youngest (T) lives in the Ozark mountains. On Friday, just as I was leaving work my father called to tell me T's house had been struck by lightening and that they had had a fire because of it. He sounded very "no big deal" about it so I wasn't concerned. Today my mom called me to tell that they didn't just have a fire because of it, they are now homeless because of it.
They live in a house that's built into a hill. A vent to their house travels straight up through the hill. Lightening went through that vent into their laundry room, blew out through her brand new dryer, and through the electrical lines throughout the whole house, and even to their well outside.
Thankfully the plans they had for that day had changed a bit. She was supposed to go with her DH into town (they live in the middle of nowhere) and her 14 yo DS was supposed to babysit his 3 yo and >1 yo brothers. What ended up happening was she stayed home with the baby and her DH took the two older boys, AND they got a late start. I cannot imagine how freaked out my nephew may have been or the tragedy that may have happened if they had gone into town and left the boys at home.
Anyway BIL had just arrived home and she was standing outside talking to him when the lightening struck. She thought it struck between the dog "barn" (she used to raise pugs) and the pasture. It frightened her so she ran everyone in the house. No sooner had they got into the house then the smoke alarms went off. Then the oldest came running down the hall yelling "fire" and she turned to tell him to stop being so overdramatic that he'd scare the babies when smoke came rolling out of the laundry room (which is next to nephew's room).
Everyone got out okay. She even grabbed diapers and formula but forgot to grab bottles (the firemen brought them out to her after they got the fire out!). They got both the trucks out of the garage and BIL got the hose out and tried to get water into the attic while Sis called 911. She said she had no idea how panicked she was until she heard herself talking to 911. All this time she's holding the baby. She handed baby off to big brother and went in and out of the house a few times getting blankets to keep the kids warm and tried to see if she could help BIL. She said she knew it was hopeless as soon as she got near since she could hear the fire roaring.
I talked to her on the phone a little while ago and the power company is there trying to restore power so they can maybe get the well back up. The insurance company has put them in a 2 room hotel and they're going to see if they'll get a trailer out on the property to live in for the next 6 months or so while their home is rebuilt. She says the most upsetting part of all this was seeing her babies' clothing laying on the floor all burnt up and imagine them wearing them. Needless to say by that time we were both in tears.
Yesterday my sis that lives near Dallas got caught up in a tornado that hit there. Fortunately they're okay and sustained no damage.
One more reason to hate living so far away from my family.
Labels: family