The night the roof fell in
News ·Friday December 15, 2006 @ 11:27 EST (link)
December 14: It was, indeed, a dark and stormy night. The power went out at about 2030 Thursday night and we went to bed around 2300 with the the wind tearing around the house, whistling horribly; eventually we sunk into fitful sleep, and then the roof caved in with a great tearing and we were choking on clouds of insulation and looking up at a midnight-blue gash in what used to be our bedroom ceiling. It was 0230; it was pitch dark (with all the grues and pits that entails); I rolled out of bed and helped Honey out my side since hers was blocked, and we ran into the hallway, holding onto each other for dear life. Still filled with adrenaline, I went back in to retrieve some clothes and my big Mag flashlight, which was standing on my side table but was now buried under it. Neither of us had our glasses, and after a couple of checks, still uncertain about how stable the room was, I gave up the search and we went into the street; I had on a pair of jeans I'd fished out of the ankle-deep insulation, and a dressing gown; fortunately my keys, wallet, etc. were in the pockets of my jeans. We went into the kitchen to get a drink and try to clear out some of the insulation.
A neighbor—the one whose tree had fallen, one street over—had called the police, so they were just coming down the street as we left; I waved my flashlight to signal them over. They put us into the back of their car and gave us some water; I was able to vomit out some more insulation and breathe easier. We were transferred to an ambulance, which took us to Valley General Hospital in Monroe. Honey was checked out for a bruised nose (thankfully not broken) and I had some scratches on my back, which they gave me a tetanus shot for; I'm not sure if I got them crawling off the bed, or from diving under my night table/cabinet. Valley General discharged us after determining damage was superficial (God be praised), but let us stay in a room overnight, on narrow (twin? hah!) hospital cot.
December 15: In the morning we washed up as best we could in the adjoining shower, and strolled down blearily (no glasses, if you'll recall) to the nurses' station; they directed us to another desk where we attempted to call a cab, but were thankfully diverted by a lady named Lynn from the hospital foundation, who took us to breakfast in the hospital cafeteria and also paid for our cab (I remember the meter showing about $40 when we got to our house). The power was still out, of course, but we were able to survey the damage for the first time: a large cedar (100-150') had broken off and had sheared right through the roof and bedroom wall, and was laying across the bedroom, from the lower far right corner of the room to the upper left, over the bathroom, with a collection of smaller branches reaching all the way to and over the front porch. The tree had knocked the bathroom skylight down so that it rested on the door and had pierced through the next bedroom's wall; the bathroom was also full of insulation. The other (en suite) bathroom was fine, except for a light knocked askew (but it still worked); there was a crack in the ceiling of another bedroom (the one the skylight had poked through). Our first problem was retrieving our glasses; fortunately I was able to lean over the bed and find them in the rubble. In the daylight it was a nightmare of downed trusses (seven in all, we were to find out later), beams, shingles, drywall, and tree branches. Fortunately the structure of the lower floor didn't seem compromised, but not knowing this I went into the bedroom with some trepidation.
We got our cars out of the garage, and then visited a neighbor that had a generator, and used their phone, since ours is VoIP; we called a friend in Monroe, who was able to get us a decent rate at a hotel in Kirkland, the Carlton Inn; we also called our insurance, filed a claim, and they told us to go ahead and get the tree removed, called our families again (we'd called them at around 0400, which wasn't as bad as it seems for them since they're both on Eastern time, which made it 0700 there), and started calling tree companies. We left for the hotel before it got dark; the hotel still had no power, but we met our friend Lisa there and played some card games using a Pinochle deck our friend had (that explained why it was so cheap...).
At about 1700 I decided to sleep some in our room, Honey woke me up and said she and Lisa were going to hospital to get some X-rays of her face and chest to see if anything was broken, because she was feeling pain. I woke up at 1900 and they still weren't back, so I took a book to the hotel lobby and brought their candelabra over to a table and read. After some hours (2130) I called Lisa's cell phone and they said they were almost finished; they got back at 2200. Power was restored to the hotel at 2237, and we went downstairs with some of the hotel staff and management (it's somewhat of a family business) and they made us hot chocolate; friendly people, nice place. We called MetLife again from our room, but still no word on when the adjuster could come out.
(Of course, I'm not writing these on the actual entry date above; this entry was written December 28; I'm just using the entry dates to track the events.)
December 15: In the morning we washed up as best we could in the adjoining shower, and strolled down blearily (no glasses, if you'll recall) to the nurses' station; they directed us to another desk where we attempted to call a cab, but were thankfully diverted by a lady named Lynn from the hospital foundation, who took us to breakfast in the hospital cafeteria and also paid for our cab (I remember the meter showing about $40 when we got to our house). The power was still out, of course, but we were able to survey the damage for the first time: a large cedar (100-150') had broken off and had sheared right through the roof and bedroom wall, and was laying across the bedroom, from the lower far right corner of the room to the upper left, over the bathroom, with a collection of smaller branches reaching all the way to and over the front porch. The tree had knocked the bathroom skylight down so that it rested on the door and had pierced through the next bedroom's wall; the bathroom was also full of insulation. The other (en suite) bathroom was fine, except for a light knocked askew (but it still worked); there was a crack in the ceiling of another bedroom (the one the skylight had poked through). Our first problem was retrieving our glasses; fortunately I was able to lean over the bed and find them in the rubble. In the daylight it was a nightmare of downed trusses (seven in all, we were to find out later), beams, shingles, drywall, and tree branches. Fortunately the structure of the lower floor didn't seem compromised, but not knowing this I went into the bedroom with some trepidation.