Family fortunate despite damage to their house

By Patrick Johnston

Published: August 25, 2008

Carol VanDenbark will never forget Saturday afternoon.

Like many residents, she stayed home Saturday. She was content to wait out Tropical Storm Fay from the shelter of her Lakeside Drive house.

It was early afternoon when Carol and her stepson, 11-year-old Zachary, were watching The Weather Channel.

She didn’t realize that within minutes, their home would be damaged by a tree from an adjacent lot.

The tall tree fell on the back of their house - a somewhat surprising occurrence since the wind wasn’t gusty at that time. But once the tree hit the house, Carol and Zachary knew the house was damaged.
“The entire house started rattling,” Zachary recalled.

“I knew it was bad. I waited a few more minutes before walking in there,” Carol said.

What she found was a tree that had pierced the roof and fell into her bedroom. The damage was substantial.

But even scarier were two close calls.

Carol had awaken just 45 minutes earlier.

Another hour of sleep, and she would have been in bed when the tree fell into the bedroom.

A more frightening thought was that Zachary was seconds away from walking outside to check on their Basset hound, Dozier. The new dog house where Dozier lived was destroyed by the tree. The dog was OK.

But the scariest thought for Carol was that Zachary might have been outside at that time, except he couldn’t find his pair of Crocs he was going to wear outside.

“Usually I don’t cry at all. But I was hysterical,” Carol said.

Two hours later she was calm and expressing gratitude for the help she received from members of the Eufaula Fire and Rescue Squad and the Eufaula Police Department. Her insurance agent, Keith Bryan, also arrived quickly to provide any assistance that was needed, along with friends and family members.

Carol said she was thankful that her family wasn’t injured.

“It was nothing compared to people losing their houses,” she said.