Blaine Smith says if he’d been sleeping in his cabin on Lawrence Lane in the North Westside on Sunday when a severe storm ripped through the area, he would have been killed by the massive tree that crushed the roof.
Several cars, boats, houses and property were damaged by a storm that pounded the area.
Trees were uprooted and launched into several beach properties. Cars, boats and patios were destroyed by the fallen trees. Six houses were also damaged.
Luckily, no one was reported injured.
Smith is the owner of the cabin most severely damaged. He said that had he been at the cabin during the storm, as he had initially planned, he likely would have been killed. A large tree fell onto his property, crushing the roof of the cabin and landed where his bedroom once was. The floor collapsed on impact.
He said he’s just happy he’s alive — the storm took place in the middle of the night when he would have been sleeping. He would have been crushed by the weight of the tree trunk.
“The floor collapsed from the impact and that would have been catastrophic,” he said. “There’s no way I would have survived.”
Despite the damage to his property, Smith maintains a great attitude about the incident. “Now, I just have open air,” he joked while looking around what’s left of his cabin, which no longer had a roof.
Smith, who had been going to his family’s summer home on Lawrence Lane since he was two years old, said this is the first time a storm like this has hit the beach.
“I’ve been coming up here my whole life and this is a first,” he said. “This tree [that fell onto his property] is probably 80 or 90 years old so it definitely wasn’t supposed to come down.”
His father, who was staying in a trailer on the other side of the property that night, phoned Smith with the news on Monday morning.
Smith then made his way to Lawrence Lane to join the community to clean up the aftermath. Crews and owners have spent the last few days cleaning up the area. There is still a lot of work to be done.
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