OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV — Tree limb smashes into living room ceiling, leaving fourth-generation homeowner uncertain about the future of his home.
- Tree limb smashes into his living room ceiling
- Rick Dibelka is the fourth generation of his family to live in the house
- Waiting for insurance to assess the damage
- Watch the video to see just how big this silver maple was when it hit his home.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"Every time I would step, you would hear ch ch ch," Dibelka said. "The tree just folded over my entire house."
This is what Rick Dibelka came home to last Wednesday after the historic storm hit Omaha.
"When I made my way to the back, it was even folded over the back side of the house also." Dibelka said. "Part of the tree was sticking through my living room ceiling."
It was a tree-rooted in Dibelka's yard for decades.
"When my grandparents moved in in '75, this tree was already here," Dibelka said.
A massive silver maple smashing into his home.
"This tree was massive, I can't tell you how many times I've been in it myself trimming it or... put a lot of work into that tree," Dibelka said.
It has been several days of clean up, many in the dark, as he waited for power to come but on Sunday night.
Now, going through and marking different parts of his home where new cracks have appeared, noting water damage as rain poured into his home where the tree created holes.
"Each day that I would come back there was more pieces of the ceiling on the floor, more to sweep up and things like that," Dibelka said.
For Rick, it's more than just where he lives, he's the fourth generation of his family to own this house, now waiting to see what happens next.
"It's a day at a time, it's a slow process, I've got a big family, got a lot of friends, everyone wants to help," Dibelka said.
But for now, as he waits for insurance to come out on Friday, his future in this home is very much wait and see.
