Bob Nelson walks past a tree that had fallen through he roof of his Tenino home during Thursday's thunderstorms.
Dean Brucie, of Cedar Crest Homes, LLC, assesses the damage to the Tenino home of Bob and Karen Nelson on Friday morning. Thursday's severe weather knocked down several trees on the Nelson's property, one of which fell through the roof of their home.
Karen Nelson, left, and her husband, Bob, stand in the backyard of their Tenino home where Thursday's severe weather knocked down large trees damaging their home and property.
In order to get from the master bedroom to the living, Bob Nelson, must climb from a ladder then step down from a tree that fell through his home in Tenino during Thursday evening's severe weather.
Dean Brucie, of Cedar Crest Homes, LLC, walks through Bob and Karen Nelson's home in Tenino assessing the damage on Friday morning. Thursday's severe weather knocked down several trees on the Nelson's property, one of which fell through the living room of their home.
Dean Brucie, of Cedar Crest Homes, LLC, assesses the damage to the Tenino home of Bob and Karen Nelson on Friday morning. Thursday's severe weather knocked down several trees on the Nelson's property, one of which fell through the roof of their home.
When the power went out in the Tenino area Thursday afternoon, 6-year-old Robert Nelson left the second-floor living room of his family’s home to join his mother downstairs.
About a minute later, a tree came crashing down through the roof of the home, destroying the room where Robert had been entertaining himself minutes earlier.
“He was scared because the lights went out,” Karen Nelson, his mother, said while surveying the damage outside the Mima Acres Drive home Friday morning.
While Karen and her husband Bob are understandably relieved their family is safe, they’re now left grappling with the next steps in recovery now that their home has essentially been split in half.
Three trees came down on their property Thursday as a powerful series of thunderstorms brought severe wind and rain to a broad swath of Western Washington. About 40,000 Puget Sound Energy customers were without power as major outages were reported in Thurston County and surrounding areas. According to The Associated Press, the majority of outages were in and around Olympia, where authorities had to extricate a motorist whose vehicle was struck by a power pole and live wires. Straight-line winds also blew the roof off a shop in East Olympia.
Mima Mounds Drive Southeast, located just outside Tenino city limits off of Old Highway 99, seemed to get a disproportionate amount of damage. On Friday morning, residents were still picking up limbs and burning debris as crews arrived to fix electrical lines and assess the damage along the road.
Bob Nelson, a postal worker in Chehalis, said he’s already coming to terms with the possibility that the home where he and his family has resided for about six years might need to be completely demolished. An insurance adjuster was scheduled to come to the property Monday.
In the meantime, Bob, Karen, Robert and 4-year-old Samantha will be living out of a hotel in Tumwater. The children, who have expressed concern over returning to the home after the frightful events, were at school and daycare Friday as Bob and Karen took stock of the destruction.
They were still finding new pockets of damage throughout the home Friday morning.
“It’s raining downstairs,” Bob said while pointing to areas of the ceiling bulging from the pressure of water leaks on the bottom floor of the home.
The second-floor living room is covered in a thick layer of insulation and woody debris. The tree, which fell from the back yard and crushed an outbuilding in the process, essentially cut the home in half, Bob said. Gaping holes expose the interior of the home from both sides, and inside the damage is still difficult to assess in terms of overall structural effects.
Karen, who was home with the children at the time, was surprised by the lack of noise that coincided with the tree falling. After the power went out, she heard what sounded like a branch hitting the house. A short time later, she was shocked to see the tree cutting through the top floor.
“It just sounded like a branch, not the house getting ripped in half,” Bob said.
Bob and Karen remained in good spirits considering the circumstance.
“Wipe your feet,” he chuckled while entering the home.
The house is insured, and the couple is certain the family will return to normalcy in time. On Friday though, they were at a loss.
“We need to figure out what to do,” Karen said Friday morning. “We don’t even know what to do right now.”
