Garrett Just Called With Some News

The ceiling of my old bedroom just collapsed under the weight of soaked insulation and sheet rock. However, the walls of the house are stable and the roof is mostly intact above my room.

Although I haven't called that room mine for the past four years, Garrett's friend and Thunderpants bandmate, Scott, has been staying in it occasionally for the past two years. He works out of town so only spends a few weeks at a time in Lafayette and mostly uses the room for storage. He has been out of town since earlier this year.

Garrett and Nicole had been moving things from the bedrooms to the living room for several hours and were able to move all of Scott's personal belongings except for a large antique organ which may suffer some water damage. Garrett had put large containers in my room to collect the water running in through the ceiling and then went up into the attic to investigate. That was when he discovered that the roof damage was worse than he had previously thought.

I misunderstood an earlier email that said the tree was laying beside the house. It actually fell in the front yard and extends in front of about one-third of the house. When Garrett went into the attic he saw a ten foot hole in the roof made by a branch that he said is at least six inches in diameter. As the tree fell, the branch must have torn the hole in the roof allowing water to pour in and soak the insulation. Garrett and Nicole were in the process of emptying the buckets of water when Nicole noticed that the ceiling began to sag. Garrett had just gotten out of the way and started taking more pictures when the ceiling collapsed. He says that he got some pictures as the collapse was happening.

Amazingly, the power is still on at the house although the cable (including the internet) is no longer working. He has set up the wireless network in the living room so that when the cable is restored, they will use Nicole's laptop to access news on the internet and send the pictures they have taken so far. They haven't been outside yet as the winds are still pretty strong but they are trending down a little according the WeatherBug alerts I am receiving. As soon as it is safe to venture outside, they will investigate and photograph any other external damage to the house.