“That’s our roofs, grandpa!” The house of Marie and her husband has been destroyed by tornado
Published: Jul 9, 2021 Reading time: 3 minutes
Marie lived with her husband in the same house where her grandparents used to live. Around the year 2000, so more than 20 years ago, the couple moved in here to retire, and they have lived here together ever since. Their house got destroyed by a tornado that hit southern Moravia this summer and is about to get demolished.
“When it started, we stayed in this little old house. Fortunately, we had shutters on the front windows, which eventually saved us. Thank God, none of us were injured, and we managed to escape unharmed. I screamed so much as the whole house swayed from side to side” Marie describes her experience and adds: “I had recently had surgery, so I was lying down on the sofa right where the electric pole is placed when all of a sudden the whole pole started swinging”.
Marie then looked outside and saw the remains of her roof lying on the road.
“Then heavy rain started pouring down. Water cascaded over the torn roofs,” she describes. “When it finally stopped raining, and it seemed like there was daylight outside, I took another look out there. I thought we were the only ones affected by the storm; however, I could not believe what I was seeing. I said to myself: “What is all that stuff on the road? Some wood and other things. So I am saying to my husband: that’s our roofs! It was almost impossible to get outside because of all that mess,” Marie explains.
The destroyed and soon-to-be demolished house, had a 100-year-old bakery inside where a well-known leaven bread was made by Marie’s grandparents back in the day. “My grandparents used to be acknowledged bakers, and they baked for a number of villages all around here. The baking oven is antique,” says Marie.
The couple owns one more building on the other side of the yard in which their grandchildren would often stayed over the holidays. This house also ended up without a roof and was flooded by water.
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Marie is not able to recall all the events which happened that evening when the tornado came. It was a big shock for her. Despite that, she shares with us what she thought afterwards: “When my mum was just nine-months old, and her sister just four, my nan was only twenty-eight. The grandfather had just got back from the war. He was totally blind and did not have an arm. She had it hard, I mean. So when the tornado came, I kept telling myself: you will get through this, you will get through this.”
Marie’s brothers and grandchildren are helping the couple to get through these difficult times. “We even had a volunteer over here from Brno called Cyril. He was so lovely and very skilled. He helped us out enormously. And all those police officers, firemen and other people asking us if there is anything they could do to help,” Marie describes emotionally.
