Hi friends,
I just want to let you know that everybody is OK..but very shaken up. But..my Mom's house is not.
Friday night the kids were having their usual Friday night sleepover and after they were in bed, it started to get windy.
Mom was getting nervous and decided to leave the livingroom and go to bed because she can't hear the wind as well from her bedroom.
About ten minutes later, she heard a massive BOOM (neighbours said it sounded like an explosion)
She checked it out only enough to see that the ceiling in the livingroom was low and that the cabinet in the kitchen above the counter was hanging down..then decided to call 911 from her bedroom. She called, they told her to get the kids out. She had to shake them awake...they miraculously hadn't woken up. They climbed out of Mom's bedroom, went next door and the firefighters showed up. They made sure everyone was OK. The kids were so brave..the firefighter's were watching them all for shock, the kids were shaking from head to toe. While the firefighters were in the house turning off power and water etc. another tree fell and too out the railing on the front deck. I'm so proud of Mom and the kids for being so brave and doing everything right.
Mom called me and off we went at 1:00am..Mom tried to get us not to drive, but we had to be there.We went and got the kids..called Sam and took Mom to her house. We couldn't see anything in the dark...and the wind was insane.
We came home and everyone slept but me (well maybe 2 hours)
We spent the day today dealing with stuff at the house. Mom' is too afraid to go inside. Restoration guys were everywhere. Rudy and I gathered all kinds of stuff for the immediate future, clothes, paperwork etc.. and John and Marylin Newall had been there and moved the freezer next door and plugged it in. So many people helped us so much.
The tree took out the livingroom, ceiling's all caved in . The floors are buckled and sunken, and huge branches pierced the roof into the kitchen...one of them straight into Julie's highchair. The divider wall between kitchen and livingroom driven down into the floor and the cabinets from that same wall on the kitchen floor glass everywhere.
The house is destroyed.... I'll attach pictures.
Mom could only get market value insurance for the house because of it's age, starting last September.This means she will not have her home replaced but will be given the amount of cash that the insurance company decides her house was worth...this is really bad news, because it means that she will need to get a new home...continue to pay the 52,000 she had on her mortgage and only receive about 50,000 (very big ballpark) This is the part that kills me, I'm so worried. I'm hoping that something very good will come of this whole mess. We will be appealing to the community through the local paper for help...we spent a little over an hour with a very kind reporter today.
Please send your prayers for her, and that our kids can put this behind them.
All our love,
A VERY lucky
Linda and Rudy, Liam and Talia
Here is the link to all the pics
http://members.shaw.ca/famograham/Ruths/