Damage from the Tornado of Sept. 17, 2004:  The Morning After

When we heard on the TV Friday night that a tornado was 12 miles south of Ballenger Creek, we went down to the basement.  Randy stayed upstairs and kept sticking his head out the door; when he heard the roaring he came down too.  It was over in about 15 seconds, then we came up to see what had happened.  I took these pictures on Saturday morning.  Everyone is OK. 

Click on the thumbnails to see a full-sized image.

Neighbors came by Saturday morning with chain saws to clear our driveway.

Most of the trees in our yard will have to be removed. Tree damage is only covered by insurance if the tree hit the house.

We lost a downspout and some fascia cladding.

The spruce was completely uprooted; the man from the tree service says that rarely happens to spruces.

This is the major damage to our house: two rafters' worth of roofing is gone.

The plastic covering is courtesy of the Carroll Manor volunteer fire company.

Before the storm, the corn was eight feet tall.

This is the house of our neighbor to the left. They also have damage to the opposite corner of their house.

This is the neighbor on the other side. His house was the worst hit.

The mailbox is ours; it was untouched.

This was his bedroom.

We think the tornado hit here and then blew through the house, causing the damage on the opposite side. He was on his way downstairs when it hit; the basement door blew off in his hands and he fell down the last few stairs. He is staying with another neighbor.

This is his chimney.

The plastic covering the fire department put on was still letting in rain, so Randy went into the attic to try to spread some plastic up there.

Unfortunately, he slipped off the rafter he was standing on and crashed through Gilbert's ceiling. So in addition to wind and water damage, we also have Randy damage.

This basket of Gilbert's clothes was directly below the hole. The brown stuff is fiberglass insulation from the attic.

The whole room was covered in this stuff. But our insurance company sent a disaster recovery firm to clean it up on Saturday; they'll be back to fix the ceiling.

They also redid the plastic on the roof. We hope this will be adequate until the roofers can repair it.

A restoration firm has also been busy at the neighbor's house.

One of the photos in Sunday's Washington Post Metro section, showing repair work on a house in "Adamstown," is of this house.

Site created by Teresa Rupp, Mount St. Mary's University
This page was last updated January 04, 2005