Jordan’s nearby barn, on the other hand, had its shingle roof ripped off, leaving just the rafters of the structure’s ceiling exposed. But she was feeling grateful, having seen the damage caused to some of the homes in the area.
“Our neighbors, one (to the west) and one behind us, experienced a total loss,” Jordan said.
Jordan’s home is situated west of the intersection of Rangeline Road and Klinger Road. This area took a big hit, evidenced by debris sprawled across roads and yards, cracked and uprooted trees, downed power lines, and insulation sprinkled across the neighborhood.
A large outdoor grill was bent and tangled up in power lines. Large, leafy tree branches appeared to have been launched through the air an unknown distance before settling in the road.
A home nearest to the corner of Rangeline and Klinger roads, one of the two in the immediate area that were hit the hardest, had a collapsed roof on the building’s main living area. The roof on an attached garage is completely gone.
“Well, you can see what’s left of my house,” Jeff Slattery said. Asked if the storm made the oft-described “freight train” noise as it approached, Slattery said, “They say that’s what it sounds like, and I would say that’s about as close as you can describe it. Just this loud roar coming, and the closer it got, the louder it got. ... Scary, scary, scary.”
To the northeast, Monica Hunt’s home is also a total loss.
“We are so grateful; God has been so good to us,” Hunt said through tears Friday. “Everybody is safe and this can all be replaced.”
A section at the back of Hunt’s home, which includes the main family room and kitchen, is fully exposed, with most of the roof sheared completely off. Paintings can be seen still hanging on crumbling walls, and the kitchen cabinets are coated with the dirt and mud spun up by the storm.
Tornadoes are known for crushing one thing and leaving the next one unharmed. One of Hunt’s cabinet doors was ripped off, but the bottle of pink medicine inside sat untouched Friday, juxtaposed against the gray sky that’s now clearly visible with the roof gone. Other household items remained neatly organized on the shelves.
Hunt said she and her 18-year-old son Jesse, along with two neighbors, sheltered in their basement as the worst of the storm hit.
Hunt described what sounded like “a train that was very close by,” before hearing the impact.
“We had been downstairs maybe 30 seconds and I heard the front window glass break, so I thought that’s all it was,” she said. “But when we came up, I didn’t have a roof.”
Hunt and her son had lived in the home since 2013.
“It’s the only home he’s ever known,” she said of Jesse, who was a young child when they first moved in. “It was my dream home.”
Hunt said she’s not sure what the future holds but that she’s taking it one day at a time.
“We’re all safe; that’s what matters,” she said.
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