Like many of our neighbors across the metro Vicky Sepcenko was woken by wailing tornado sirens and heavy storms rolling through her neighborhood.
“When the wind started going I heard that go, and I thought I have 3 trees in my front yard, am I next? Said Sepcenko.
Luckily for Vicky the only damage she received was a few tree branches down in her yard but across the street her neighbors weren’t so lucky.
“It was shocking because you walk outside the door and all you see is tree,” said Stephanie Dinklage
Stephanie Dinklage and Michael Briardy woke up to find one of their oldest trees blocking their driveway the roots sticking up in the air, the sidewalk underneath it buckled and broken.
“First thing I thought is, I have to call my insurance company. I am the insurance agent, literally im the Farmer’s Insurance agency so I had to call my company,” said Briardy.
Just a block away from Michael and Stephanie chainsaws were buzzing as a group helped Ann Wamberg clean up a tree that had collapsed in her driveway.
“The big limb that came off took out three cars. One from visitors, friends of ours that were visiting,” said Swamberg.
Swamberg said she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the damage from the fallen tree but what surprised her even more was when her neighbors, and even some strangers, started showing up to help clean up.
“People seem to take care of each other here. We came from Colorado Springs, which is a nice community. But it doesn’t compare to everybody knows everybody. In Colorado Springs it’s all 6 foot privacy fences and you didn’t know anybody. This is totally different,” said Swamberg.
With debris and damage strewn across Blair it would be easy for Ann and her neighbors to focus on what they lost but instead they are looking at the silver lining.
The trees might be gone, but all of the neighbors are safe.
“With the tornadoes that just happened this could’ve been a much worse situation. Im not gonna cry about it, it’s a tree. We can clean it up but all of our lives are intact, we are all good,” said Dinklage.
